SkyBridge Capital chief executive Anthony Scaramucci said his firm may buy back the stake in the company it sold to FTX in September last year. While Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz has indicated that he would be tempted to “punch” SBF in the jaw.
SkyBridge and FTX
FTX Ventures acquired a 30% stake in alternative asset manager SkyBridge for an undisclosed fee on September 9, just a couple of months before FTX filed for bankruptcy in November.
Speaking to CNBC on January 13, Scaramuci indicated that in light of FTX’s woes, SkyBridge is making progress on repurchasing that stake, but suggested the move could not be resolved “until probably the end of the first half of this year.”
“We are waiting for clearance from the bankruptcy people, lawyers and investment bankers to determine exactly what we are going to buy back and when,” the chief executive said, adding that “I think it will work itself out.” favorably.”
Speaking about former FTX CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Scaramucci outlined his thoughts that there was probably some foul play there.
“I think it is now very clear that there was fraud. Of course, we will have to let the legal system determine all of those things. But for Sam, he has three of the four principles that worked alongside him have already pleaded guilty and explained to prosecutors what they did,” Scaramucci said.
It will reach @Scaramucci today. FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried bought a 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital from Scaramucci before FTX collapsed. Now Scaramucci says that he is confident that he will be able to buy that stake back. Faced with new facts, he also alleges that SBF committed fraud pic.twitter.com/jxltXdjCKW
—Arjun Kharpal (@ArjunKharpal) January 13, 2023
The CEO’s comments offer a stark contrast to his earlier remarks to CNBC in November, in which Scaramucci refused to use the word “fraud” because of its legal ramifications, and urged “Sam and his family to tell the truth to their investors, to get to the bottom” of the whole debacle.
According to SkyBridge’s website, as of September 30, 2022, it had $2.2 billion worth of assets under management, of which approximately $800 million was made up of investments related to digital assets.
Galaxy CEO looks for a beating
Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz says there is a side of him that would like to bash both SBF and Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert for their reported antics during crypto winter.
In an interview with Bloomberg aware on January 13, Novogratz noted that the FTX ordeal ended up directly costing the Galaxy around $77 million. As such, he’s not a big fan of SBF and other alleged misconduct in space over the past year.
“My toxic masculine side would like to punch you both in the jaw,” he said of SBF and Silbert, before adding specifically of SBF: “You’ve got to be kidding. Are you seriously a——?”
Related: Crypto Community Not Impressed By SBF’s Extensive Substack Letter
Novogratz finally admitted that he is still a cryptocurrency advocate even though 2022 was such a wild year for the industry.
However, he did note that he wished he had taken more capital off the table in early 2022 before FTX and even the Terra/LUNA ecosystem went bankrupt. Still, he says that he managed to pull out more than $1 billion before that year began.
