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Speaker 1: Now moving from the boj to crypto. It was the

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Speaker 1: final day on the witness for Sam bankman Freed in

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Speaker 1: his fraud trial involving the collapse of FTX. Now he

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Speaker 1: argued the firm lost customer funds because of poor oversight

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Speaker 1: and management, not fraud. He also said he wasn't aware

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Speaker 1: of the problem un till, of course it was too late.

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Speaker 1: Joining us now for the latest on the trial, I'm

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Speaker 1: thrilled to say is Bloomberg Shanali Bassic along with Anthony Scaramucci.

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Speaker 1: He of course is the managing partner and founder of

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Speaker 1: Skybridge Capital. Shanale take it away.

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Speaker 2: Anthony, you were not physically, I believe at the trial.

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Speaker 2: I didn't see you down there, but in name, you

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Speaker 2: were certainly in the trial in many ways point right,

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Speaker 2: I mean the ways you've been brought up, everything from

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Speaker 2: how you told Sam bankman Fried to wear a tie

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Speaker 2: to introductions made throughout the Middle East, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince,

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Speaker 2: the head of the public investment fund there on the outset,

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Speaker 2: do you buy what Sam Bankmin Freed was putting down

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Speaker 2: and is there any part of his testimony that you

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Speaker 2: find conflicting?

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Speaker 3: It's hard for me to imagine saying this, because you

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Speaker 3: always put me on the hot seat. But I'd much

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Speaker 3: rather be here than downtown Sonali, So I'll say that

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Speaker 3: to start out the conversation.

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Speaker 4: But I'm very sad by the whole thing.

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Speaker 3: You know. I read through his transcript and his responses

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Speaker 3: this morning, and it's a discombobulation. I think one of

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Speaker 3: the journalists says, well, they murdered him in the beginning

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Speaker 3: of it, and then they stabbed the dead body in

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Speaker 3: the afternoon after lunch. I mean, he has absolutely no

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Speaker 3: defense or plausibility to a defense other than the fact

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Speaker 3: that he, alongside of his cohorts, perpetrated fraud. So I

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Speaker 3: think what's that issue for everybody right now is when

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Speaker 3: is this end?

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Speaker 4: And when is his sentencing?

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Speaker 3: You know, I think Sam made the mistake, but the

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Speaker 3: decision to expect at least one of twelve jurors perhaps

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Speaker 3: could think he's innocent or think his youth and inexperience

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Speaker 3: may make him less criminally liable. But I think the

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Speaker 3: prosecutors did a very very good job of explaining facts

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Speaker 3: based explanation of his guilt. So we'll have to see

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Speaker 3: what happens. But he's now had his day in court,

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Speaker 3: and I think it's going to be a very sad

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Speaker 3: day for him and his family when this is over.

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Speaker 2: Now, when you were bringing him around before all of

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Speaker 2: this had happened, I'm really curious those to what investors

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Speaker 2: tell you now, particularly these huge sovereign wealth funds throughout

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Speaker 2: the world, given that they had reached out to him.

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Speaker 2: You had reached out to them to try to save

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Speaker 2: FTX before we knew what went wrong.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, remember we can revise history today. But let's

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Speaker 3: go back a year ago. Sam was very well regarded.

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Speaker 3: He was on the cover of Forbes and Fortune, articles

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Speaker 3: written even in Bloomberg about him and the dynamic nature

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Speaker 3: and the growth of his business. And so he had

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Speaker 3: twenty five of probably the most established venture capitalists and

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Speaker 3: sovereigns already had committed over a billion dollars of capital

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Speaker 3: to him, and so he was raising a secondary round

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Speaker 3: at that time, and.

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Speaker 4: So he was a superstar. We can pretend otherwise.

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Speaker 3: Now you're asking what people say today, I think we're

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Speaker 3: all saying the same thing. Wow, you can get grifted

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Speaker 3: or defrauded in situations where you think that that's not happening,

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Speaker 3: and that's the classic nature of a fraud.

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Speaker 4: And so I guess what I would say to my colleagues.

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Speaker 3: In the industry where people are thinking about making speculative

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Speaker 3: investments and private companies, is we've got to do a

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Speaker 3: way better job of following the money. Ultimately, Sonali, they

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Speaker 3: committed that crime with three or four people, and the

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Speaker 3: way to commit a financial crime is if you have

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Speaker 3: three or four people in a closed loop, you can

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Speaker 3: commit the crime. If you have fifty people, you always

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Speaker 3: have a person of conscience that raises our hand and says, jeez,

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Speaker 3: I'm sorry, this doesn't work for me. And when you

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Speaker 3: think about the checks and balances that we have in

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Speaker 3: place at Skybridge over the nineteen years of our existence,

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Speaker 3: you need a lot of people to turn keys before

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Speaker 3: money moves. You need outside vendors to look at the situation.

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Speaker 3: And what you find out about what Sam did was

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Speaker 3: he gave you the appearance of that, but he had

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Speaker 3: it actually insulated among three or four people. And I

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Speaker 3: think that's the lesson of the Sam Bankman free story.

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Speaker 1: And Anthony, I want to talk about what this has

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Speaker 1: meant for your reputation and your business, specifically when it

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Speaker 1: comes to the Middle East. Connection and you connecting Sam

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Speaker 1: Bankman freed with Saudi Arabia's crown prints. Now, of course

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Speaker 1: on the other side of that, has that dented your

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Speaker 1: credibility at all when it comes to the Middle East.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think it's hurt our reputation, There's no question

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Speaker 3: about that. I think it would be naive to think

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Speaker 3: that we didn't get hurt by it. But this is

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Speaker 3: what I would say to my five children. If you

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Speaker 3: have integrity and you speak about things in a truthful way,

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Speaker 3: they'll always be opportunity for you.

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Speaker 4: You know, my friends in.

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Speaker 3: The Middle East have reached out to me after the incident.

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Speaker 4: The good news is nobody in.

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Speaker 3: The Middle East a year ago made any investments and

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Speaker 3: they're good people over there, loyal people, and so they

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Speaker 3: reached out to me and asked me what we could

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Speaker 3: be doing together, how could they help me. I thought

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Speaker 3: that was pretty terrific of them for that matter. But

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Speaker 3: I mean, you know, you guys wrote some nasty articles

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Speaker 3: about me. I still show up on TV. I don't

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Speaker 3: have a problem with it. I think if you're in

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Speaker 3: the public and you make a mistake glaring like that,

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Speaker 3: you can do what crisis communications people say to do

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Speaker 3: is run and hide and tuck yourself in a corner

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Speaker 3: somewhere and pretend it didn't happen, or you can face

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Speaker 3: the music.

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Speaker 4: I would rather face the music.

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Speaker 3: I think is more important for my family members and

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Speaker 3: for my clients and for people that want to be

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Speaker 3: in business with me to hear me face the music,

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Speaker 3: explain what's wrong, and explain what we're doing. And so,

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Speaker 3: I mean, the good news for us, I think since

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Speaker 3: you guys wrote that nasty article Bass, we're probably up

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Speaker 3: about sixty five percent.

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Speaker 4: So I'm hoping they'll be like another Bloomberg nasty article

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Speaker 4: at some point. And that's fine.

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Speaker 3: I mean that's the way things go, and I get that.

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Speaker 4: But we're on a good run right now.

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Speaker 3: The month of October has probably been the best month

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Speaker 3: in Skybridge's history for that matter, So that all bitcoin,

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Speaker 3: a lot of it's bitcoin, some of its tech, some

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Speaker 3: of its newer economy things that have rebounded aggressively since

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Speaker 3: the beginning of the year. But of course bitcoin has

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Speaker 3: had a spectacular month. You know, we own a lot

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Speaker 3: of Solana. I think Salona is probably up seventy percent

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Speaker 3: this month. And so this is just another explanation that

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Speaker 3: people stay in things, stay convicted, don't listen to the

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Speaker 3: chin music throughout the day, but have a very long

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Speaker 3: term focus on what you're doing.

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Speaker 4: And we never sold a bitcoin in fact of anything.

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Speaker 3: We accumulated bitcoin this year at lower prices and it's

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Speaker 3: served us on our clients well.

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Speaker 5: Now, an FTX unit had agreed to acquire thirty percent

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Speaker 5: of Skybridge. What are the prospects of getting the steak back?

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Speaker 3: Do you have anything about these That's a really good question.

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Speaker 3: At some point, maybe you'll bring on one of the

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Speaker 3: bankruptcy guys and you could ask them that question. We

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Speaker 3: would love to buy the steak back. Of course, we

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Speaker 3: were defrauded by that company FTX, and so we have

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Speaker 3: issues on that transaction.

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Speaker 4: We'd like to get the stake back.

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Speaker 5: They're not ready any steps on that.

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Speaker 3: Well, they're not ready to transact with us. We've reached

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Speaker 3: out to them many times. There's only so much we

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Speaker 3: can do. I think the good news is, and I've

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Speaker 3: learned this frankly from Bloomberg, that it feels like they're

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Speaker 3: going to be over one to one on assets versus

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Speaker 3: their liabilities, and so hopefully that'll allow them to get

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Speaker 3: the smaller things like the Skybridge piece.

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Speaker 4: But the good news for.

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Speaker 3: Skybridge is that was a minority investment. We're gradualist, so

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Speaker 3: thankfully we went slow with Sam. There's no voting interests

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Speaker 3: tied to that, there's no management tied to that. Our

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Speaker 3: economic preference. Go ahead, Scenali, I can see you, yeah, speaking,

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Speaker 3: you're voting.

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Speaker 2: Of all the strange days in the world, you're coming

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Speaker 2: here after a two hour conversation with Andrew Cuomo, the

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Speaker 2: former governor of New York at a time where there

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Speaker 2: was a huge fight against Speaker and a big change

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Speaker 2: ahead in the future of the Republican Party going into

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Speaker 2: an election cycle.

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Speaker 3: To on your mind, on my mind politically, well, I

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Speaker 3: mean I just got off the radio with Andrew. We

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Speaker 3: did two hours of a rigorous debate about all of

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Speaker 3: these issues. I think if Democrats and Republicans can't get

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Speaker 3: together and have a rigorous debate and try to meet

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Speaker 3: in the middle, it's a disaster for the country.

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Speaker 4: And so there's a crisis going.

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Speaker 3: On in the world, which we're all well aware of.

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Speaker 3: There's two proxy wars being fought. Now, God forbid, we

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Speaker 3: get into a third proxy war somewhere in East Asia.

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Speaker 4: As an example, I think is very very.

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Speaker 3: Important for the public officials, the public servants in the

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Speaker 3: United States to focus less about themselves and more actually

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Speaker 3: about the public. And so for me, the new speaker,

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Speaker 3: I wish him well.

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Speaker 4: I don't know him well.

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Speaker 3: I frankly was not in love with the idea that

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Speaker 3: he wants to tie the aid to the Israelis to

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Speaker 3: the IRS agents. By the way, I'm all for less

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Speaker 3: IRS agents because I think it's just a bad strategy.

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Speaker 3: I think Americans are exhausted from this sort of nonsense.

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Speaker 3: But I don't like that. I think we've got to

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Speaker 3: get the aid to the the Israelis. They've been one

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Speaker 3: of our strongest and longest standing allies.

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Speaker 4: All Right, that's it, Am I done. That's a lot

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Speaker 4: to hot scene. You know, you know you want to

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Speaker 4: hit me. Okay, bring you that. We'll bring you back

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Speaker 4: to bring me back to that.

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Speaker 5: Okay, Anthony, really appreciate your joining us.

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Speaker 4: Anthony Scarmy.

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Speaker 5: She is managing partner and founder of Skybridge Capital. Also

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Speaker 5: our thanks to Bloomberg Fictionelli Basik, who has been covering

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Speaker 5: the Sam Bankman freed trial.