Scaramucci says SkyBridge can buy back FTX stake this year, alleges SBF ‘committed fraud’

SkyBridge Capital can buy back the stake it sold to collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX but the issue will likely take months to resolve, the investment firm’s founder Anthony Scaramucci told CNBC Friday,

“We’re waiting for the clearance from the bankruptcy people, the lawyers and the investment bankers to figure out exactly what we’re going to be buying back, and when,” he said, adding that the situation likely won’t be resolved “until probably the end of the first half of this year.

FTX bought a 30% stake in SkyBridge in September, before the crypto company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11.

The financier and short-term White House communications director also said that, in his opinion, it is now obvious that FTX’s former CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried, known as “SBF” and believed to be a friend of Scaramucci, broke the rules.

“I think it’s very clear now that there was fraud. We’ll of course have to let the legal system determine all of those things,” Scaramucci told CNBC.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to eight federal charges including fraud and money laundering. Meanwhile, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, the former co-CEO of Alameda Research, have both pleaded guilty to federal charges connected with FTX’s collapse and are working with investigators. Alameda Research was the crypto hedge fund started by Bankman-Fried and affiliated to FTX.

Scaramucci had been reluctant to refer to Bankman-Fried’s dealings within FTX as fraud in his most recent interview with CNBC.

“I don’t want to call it fraud at this moment because that’s actually a legal term,” Scaramucci said. “I would implore Sam and his family to tell the truth to their investors, get to the bottom of it,” he added on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Nov. 11.

He also said in November he was unaware of the extent of user fund leverage happening within the crypto exchange, and did not want to put FTX’s failures down to malice. 

FTX has now recovered more than $5 billion worth of liquid assets, including cash and digital assets, according to attorneys in Delaware during one of the company’s bankruptcy hearings on Wednesday.

Speaking Friday, Scaramucci also said he thought more money would be recovered from the bankrupt crypto exchange.

“I think it will resolve itself favorably,” he told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal. “That’s obviously good news for the creditors of FTX,” he added.

— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.