SkyBridge Capital managing partner Anthony Scaramucci has opened up about the “betrayal” he felt at the actions of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who he says he considered a “friend”.
Speaking at Casper Lab’s Blockchain Hub event in Davos, Switzerland on January 16, Scaramucci stressed that after the FTX incident, he felt “betrayed” by Bankman-Fried because he had close friends with him and his family.
“I have to tell you that betrayal and fraud, it’s bad on different levels, it definitely harms my reputation, but I’m just talking about visceral relationships with people,” he said, adding that:
“If anyone here has read Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, you know what the ninth circle of Hell is reserved for […] It is to betray a friend who lives with the devil — the ninth circle of hell in the frozen lake.
Explaining his relationship with Bankman-Fried in more detail, Scaramucci eventually admitted that he chose someone he trusted and “was wrong.”
“I’m a high-profile person, so my mistakes are huge, [that’s] totally good but I won’t stop taking risks,” he said, adding: “I thought Sam was the Mark Zuckerberg of crypto, I didn’t think he was the Bernie Madoff of crypto.”
However, the founder of SkyBridge is not bothered by all the ordeals, as he insists that he has made a career out of taking risks, and he will “probably make that mistake again.”
Moreover, Scaramucci’s faith in crypto is also unwavering, as he insists that FTX’s bankruptcy has nothing to do with the underlying value proposition of the technology.
“That’s why we have blockchain and crypto, because we’re trying to create a decentralized situation where you don’t have to like or trust. […] We can transact with each other in a way that technology makes sacred.”
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As Scaramucci mentioned on CNBC on January 13, SkyBridge is currently working on buying back the 30% of the company’s shares that it sold to FTX for an undisclosed fee in September.
Notably the deal came just two months before FTX filed for bankruptcy. Scarmucci stated that after all the legal details are sorted out, the buyback could take place before the second half of this year.
After the buyback is over, Scarmucci will still have some loose ties to FTX through the investment he made to the crypto company founded by the former president of FTX USA Brett Harrison. He confirmed the move to Bloomberg via email this week.
At this latest Blockchain Hub event, Scaramucci emphasized that it is important to support and support friends like Harrison who are going through difficult times because of their affiliation with FTX.
Harrison has certainly been away from the antics of the SBF and the main circle, and notably resigned from the firm in September.