Anthony Scaramucci, founder and managing partner of alternative investment firm SkyBridge, said the firm is working to buy back a 30% stake it sold in September to crypto exchange FTX, which on Friday filed for bankruptcy.
When asked if he felt “duped”, Scaramucci said yes, and was “very disappointed” in Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive and co-founder of FTX. “I do like Sam, and I don’t understand the motivation for exactly everything that’s going on,” Scaramucci said in an interview in CNBC’s Squawk Box.
The Securities Commission of the Bahamas, where FTX is headquartered, on Thursday froze assets of FTX Digital Markets and its related parties. FTX reportedly faces a shortfall of up to $8 billion, according to several media reports.
Scaramucci said he doesn’t know what exactly happened with FTX as he was “not an insider.” But looking back, “I think people were under the impression that there was more capital there, as a result of the success that the firm had at Alameda, that portion of the business,” Scaramucci told CNBC. Alameda is an affiliated trading firm with FTX.
“People bought into the argument of Alameda was a client of FTX and there was a separate Chinese wall, because the Wall Street is good at dealing with conflicts like that,” said Scaramucci. “I think people bought into that and that was obviously a mistake,” he added.
Bankman-Fried reportedly said in investor meetings this week that Alameda owed FTX about $10 billion, as the exchange extended loans to the trading house using customer funds.
A representative at FTX didn’t respond to a request for comment.
