The management of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has filed a lawsuit against American financier Anthony Scaramucci and his hedge fund SkyBridge Capital in order to recover funds invested by the former CEO of the exchange Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). This legal proceeding is part of a major effort by the FTX bankruptcy estate to recover funds badly spent by the previous administration and settle existing creditors.

Lawyers say there is no benefit to FTX’s dealings with Scaramucci

According to A latest report Bloomberg, FTX filed 23 lawsuits in a Delaware bankruptcy court on Friday, all aimed at recovering funds intended for Bankman-Fried’s suspicious investments. The exchange’s lawyers claimed that the former FTX boss and American convict launched an “influence buying campaign” during the 2022 cryptocurrency market downturn, disguised as a series of flashy “investments.”

FTX is currently seeking to recover these funds from all of SBF’s extravagant “investment” clients, which allegedly include the Singapore exchange Crypto.com and FWD.US, the immigration and justice group founded by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.

The filed complaint also focuses on Bankman-Frieda’s relationship with Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House communications director and Goldman Sachs executive as well as the founder of the hedge fund SkyBridge Capital. The plaintiffs allege that FTX’s former CEO devoted a significant amount of time and financial resources to Scaramucci, which resulted in no benefit to the now-defunct exchange but rather was intended to strengthen Bankman-Fried’s position in politics and conventional finance.

Notably, SBF invested $67 million in Scaramucci’s SkyBridge in 2022 as part of a “rescue” as the hedge fund’s assets under management have declined by $7.3 billion since 2015. That same year, FTX ultimately purchased 30% of SkyBridge for an undisclosed amount a few months before the cryptocurrency exchange announced its bankruptcy. As of yet, Scaramucci and the other defendants have yet to provide any response to these recent lawsuits.

FTX is intensifying recovery efforts ahead of the creditor’s scheduled payment

FTX, under the leadership of John J. Ray III, continues to make significant recovery efforts as creditor settlements are expected to begin soon. Recently, Bitcoinist reported that the bankrupt exchange had negotiated a deal with Bybit to withdraw $228 million in assets from the UAE-based cryptocurrency trading platform.

The former cryptocurrency trading titan is expected to begin repaying creditors of between $14.4 billion and $16.3 billion in the final months of 2024, with a potential extension to early 2025. Of this amount, only $1.6 to $3.2 billion is likely to re-enter the cryptocurrency market as most creditor claims have been taken over by credit funds or will be unavailable due to know-your-customer (KYC) restrictions.