He may not be at the federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan, but Anthony Scaramucci, a.k.a. The Mooch, has had a front-row seat on the narrative arc of what has become the tragic spectacle of Sam Bankman-Fried. Early on, The Mooch’s hedge fund-of-funds, SkyBridge Capital, made a small investment in FTX, S.B.F.’s crypto exchange. It was, for a time, a mutually beneficial relationship. In September 2022—two months before the S.B.F. denouement—FTX Ventures, the company’s investment arm, agreed to buy a 30 percent stake in SkyBridge for $45 million, valuing SkyBridge at $150 million, and giving S.B.F. an option to buy up to 85 percent of SkyBridge after three years at a higher price. 

That fall, as I have previously documented, The Mooch opened his Rolodex to S.B.F., hosting him at various meetings with Middle East potentates, including M.B.S., in Saudi Arabia, and M.B.Z., in the United Arab Emirates. S.B.F. was on the hunt for additional equity for his failing empire and The Mooch, unaware of the holes in the FTX balance sheet, was more than happy to introduce him to his rich friends. As I have also previously reported, The Mooch was in the Bahamas, in early November 2022, at the invitation of  Joe Bankman, as his son’s world was crumbling around him in real time. When The Mooch realized how bad things had become, he returned to his home in New York City, and watched as the S.B.F. fiction was revealed.

So how is The Mooch feeling about his one-time friend and business partner now that S.B.F. is on trial, literally for his life? Somewhat surprisingly, The Mooch has some empathy for S.B.F. and what he’s going through. He told me that friends of his at venture capital firms who invested in FTX, and got hosed, want to see him “burned at the stake” and “just completely roasted and fried,” but The Mooch was more thoughtful, as is his style. “I see the human tragedy here,” he told me. “It’s heartbreaking to me.”