EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood set it sights on the wild story of fallen crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried and his FTX empire last year with the likes of Apple, Amazon and Vice all getting in on the action.
Now Bankman-Fried’s mentor, Anthony Scaramucci Jr, the investment banker best known as President Donald Trump’s short-lived Press Secretary, is set to open up about his experiences with SBF in a new podcast series.
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Audio Up, the company behind Stephen King’s Strawberry Spring and The Playboy Interviews, is launching podcast series Tales from the Crypto.
The six-episode series will explore Scaramucci’s work with SBF and FTX before transitioning into a twice-weekly podcast series about the world of crypto.
The story will explain how only a few months ago, Bankman-Fried and Scaramucci were on top of the world, traipsing through the Middle East on a grand fundraising tour after SBF bought 30% of Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital.
The plan was for SBF to raise $2B at a valuation of $32B in order for FTX to buy distressed crypto assets to stabilize the sector with the help of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
However, it all turned out to be a lie and three weeks after their trip, the company would implode in spectacular fashion with SBF charged with eight criminal counts of fraud and money laundering for cheating about 90 U.S. investors out of more than $1.1 billion in his cryptocurrency platform.
The series will explore how SBF, an MIT math whiz who initially made money through hedge fund Jane Capital, got into crypto and ended up hanging out with the likes of President Bill Clinton Gisele Bündchen, despite dressing like a teenager.
Scaramucci, otherwise known as The Mooch, was trying to save his reputation after the mockery of the Trump years and ignominy of the 11 days he spent as Donald Trump’s Press Secretary. The Mooch spent time in the Bahamas, where he courted SBF at his swanky $40 million headquarters where the founder lived with his girlfriend and ten roommate sin a so called “Chinese Harem” that included amphetamine fueled, all-night orgies.
The series will explore the highs as SBF rode a wave of public adoration and political power before crashing and burning with the company being forced into bankruptcy.
Scaramucci will serve as the unreliable narrator and story subject.
After the release of the limited series, Tales from the Crypto will pivot to an always on, twice weekly format with the Mooch as host. The series will then focus on the world of crypto, fintech, blockchain and other complicated financial concepts but explained for the everyman.
The podcast, which launches on April 1, joins a long list of SBF and FTX projects including Apple’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’ upcoming book on the subject, Joe and Anthony Russo’s series with David Weil for Amazon.
“I was as shocked as anyone,” said Scaramucci. “Learn what happened and how to prevent this from happening to you.”
“This is jaw dropping, head-slapping, audio entertainment at its finest,” added Jimmy Jellinek, Audio Up’s Chief Creative Officer. “The Mooch is a born storyteller with a suitcase full of secrets that have never been opened. You have no idea what’s coming.”
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