FTX, a bankrupt cryptocurrency company, filed 23 lawsuits on Friday against Anthony Scaramucci (pictured above), his hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, and other organizations including Crypto.com and the Mark Zuckerberg-backed lobbying group Fwd.us.
The purpose of these lawsuits is to recover money for FTX’s creditors following the company’s collapse. FTX alleges that the funds involved in these lawsuits were used in “a campaign of influence-buying” by founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, carried out while the company was struggling financially.
According to the lawsuit, these “investments” brought little to no benefit to FTX, instead working to boost Bankman-Fried’s status in politics and traditional finance. He attempted to use this enhanced standing to attract equity investment in FTX and save the company from financial ruin.
After FTX declared bankruptcy, its executives were found guilty of various crimes like fraud and money laundering. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison and is currently appealing his conviction.
Regarding SkyBridge and Scaramucci, FTX announced the acquisition of a 30% stake in SkyBridge in September 2022, just before FTX’s bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried’s arrest.
The lawsuit mentions that FTX sponsored Scaramucci’s SALT conferences with $12 million and invested $10 million in the SkyBridge Coin Fund. In return, Scaramucci helped Bankman-Fried pitch to potential investors, even lending him a suit and tie for important meetings to improve his image.
The Fwd.us lawsuit details payments from FTX’s affiliate Alameda Research to Fwd.us as part of a plan to divert money from FTX Group creditors to boost personal reputations at their expense.
SkyBridge and Fwd.us have not responded to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
