FTX bankruptcy estate sues Anthony Scaramucci, FWD.us and others

She filed for bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency company FTX 23 trials 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.

These lawsuits are an try to recuperate money from FTX’s creditors after the corporate went bankrupt. FTX claims that the cash at issue in these lawsuits was a part of an “influence buying campaign” by founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, conducted as the corporate was struggling to satisfy its own money flow needs.

The lawsuit states that “these ‘investments’ provided little or no benefit to the debtors and instead served only to strengthen Bankman-Fried’s position in the world of politics and traditional finance,” which he then tried to make use of as “potential sources of equity capital.” investment in FTX to fill the gap on its balance sheet and thus maintain the liquidity of its program.”

Since the corporate’s bankruptcy, FTX executives have been convicted of crimes including fraud and money laundering. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison and is currently appealing the decision.

In the case of SkyBridge and Scaramucci (a financier who briefly served as White House communications director under Donald Trump), FTX announced that it might acquire a 30% stake in SkyBridge in September 2022, just months before FTX went bankrupt and Bankman-Frieda was arrested.

According to the lawsuit, FTX also paid $12 million to sponsor Scaramucci’s SALT conference and invested $10 million within the SkyBridge Coin Fund. In return, FTX claims that Scaramucci took Bankman-Frieda on a “whirlwind tour of the United States and the Middle East” to court potential investors, with Scaramucci “so committed to the success of Bankman-Frieda’s fundraising efforts that he loaned Bankman-Frieda Fried his own suit and tie before meetings, in order that Bankman-Fried wouldn’t show as much as essential meetings in his trademark shorts and T-shirt.”

Meanwhile, Fwd.us’ lawsuit describes payments from FTX’s sister company Alameda Research to Fwd.us as “part of FTX Insiders’ integrated scheme to siphon money from FTX Group creditors and enhance its own reputation at the expense of creditors.” “

SkyBridge and Fwd.us didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s request for comment.