The FTX bankruptcy estate is pursuing over $100 million from SkyBridge Capital and its founder, Anthony Scaramucci, to recover funds that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) allocated toward sponsorships and investments with SkyBridge in 2022.
According to a legal filing on November 8, Bankman-Fried’s engagements with SkyBridge Capital and Scaramucci began with a $12 million sponsorship of Scaramucci’s SALT conference in January 2022.
Following this, in March 2022, SBF directed Alameda Research to invest $10 million in the SkyBridge Coin Fund.
Later, in September 2022, FTX purchased a 30% stake in the companies managing SkyBridge investment vehicles for $45 million.
FTX attorneys argue this investment was financially unsound, stating that “The FTX Group could have easily purchased, itself, less expensively” the cryptocurrencies that made up most of the $45 million.
They further noted, “Employees at the FTX Group noted internally at the time that it made no economic sense for Alameda Research Ventures, which was itself in the business of trading in cryptocurrency assets, to place so much money with a third-party manager that was less experienced.”
The filing also accuses SkyBridge of violating the agreement by selling some of these digital assets in 2023 without obtaining FTX’s permission—a requirement that FTX lawyers claim was crucial to the deal.
FTX attorneys estimate that the Bitcoin and Solana assets purchased as part of the deal with SkyBridge are currently worth $120 million, compared to $60 million when SkyBridge allegedly sold them in 2023.
The FTX bankruptcy estate has filed several lawsuits recently.
On October 28, FTX sued KuCoin to recover over $50 million in assets frozen by the exchange in 2022.
Additionally, on November 7, 2024, FTX filed a lawsuit against Crypto.com, seeking to reclaim more than $11 million in assets held since 2022.
