(Tribune News Service) — Some two weeks before Sam Bankman-Fried resigned from FTX and his cryptocurrency firm collapsed into bankruptcy and scandal, the mop-haired, Stanford-based entrepreneur was in the Middle East, desperately trying to raise $1 billion from some of the region's most ruthless but wealthy leaders.

Bankman-Fried was invited to dine at the palace in Riyadh with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to a report by Puck. The crown prince's American friend, Jared Kushner, also was there, as were billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio and Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman.

"It was quite a dinner," Puck writer William D. Cohan said. "There was tons of food — lamb, meat, fruit, pita bread and hummus — and polite conversation."

Cohan's description of the dinner comes courtesy of the person who helped arrange Bankman-Fried's invitation: Anthony Scaramucci, the American financier who briefly served as Donald Trump's White House communications director.

From Scaramucci's description, it doesn't sound as though Bankman-Fried had any concerns about immersing himself in a morally dubious situation involving the crown prince, Kushner and Saudi government money. The crown prince is known as an autocratic ruler, held responsible by the CIA for ordering the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The 37-year-old heir to the throne also has been implicated in human rights abuses in his own country and in launching Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen that initiated a humanitarian crisis there.

Meanwhile, Kushner served as senior White House adviser for Trump. Among the many controversies surrounding Kushner's time in the White House, the husband of Ivanka Trump faces congressional scrutiny over whether he improperly traded on the relationship he formed with the crown prince during his government service to score $2 billion from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the Post reported. The fund invested in Kushner's private equity firm after Trump left office.

Scaramucci has emerged as one of a number of celebrities and other public figures — including Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Steph Curry, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair — who were drawn in various ways into Bankman-Fried's crypto orbit, as Puck reported. Like the others, Scaramucci was intrigued by the idea that this "brilliant" son of two Stanford law professors was the next wunderkind in a new frontier of making money and building a new world order.

They were introduced in 2021, Cohan reported. By September 2022, in a deal brokered by Bankman-Fried's father, Joseph Bankman, Scaramucci allowed FTX to buy a 30% stake in his Skybridge Capital investment firm. Scaramucci said he decided to go into business with Bankman-Fried because he saw him as "the Mark Zuckerberg of crypto. I didn't see him as the Bernie Madoff of crypto."

The next month, Scaramucci escorted Bankman-Friend on a fundraising trip to the Middle East, Cohan reported. Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, had told Scaramucci, also known as "The Mooch," that he wanted to raise $1 billion for FTX in a new round of financing after it had been earlier valued at $32 billion.

According to Scaramucci, Bankman-Fried offered no sign that his company actually was in crisis and close to insolvency. Instead, the entrepreneur "wanted the money to continue his journey as the J.P. Morgan of the crypto industry," Cohan reported. He wanted to provide "rescue financing" for other crypto companies that were going belly-up amid growing turmoil in the crypto universe.

"Now partnered with SBF, The Mooch offered to help him raise the new money. He opened his substantial Rolodex," Cohan wrote.

They traveled to the Middle East, ostensibly to attend the FII Conference from Oct. 25 to 27 in Riyadh, where the world's top CEOs, policymakers, investors and entrepreneurs gathered to discuss the future of international investment. Because of Scaramucci's prior relationship with the crown prince, they landed an invitation to the palace.

As part of his mentor role, Scaramucci said he had to counsel Bankman-Friend on the proper attire for a dinner at the palace. Bankman-Fried is known as the poster boy for the schlubby, slovenly look adopted by young tech bros who believe it's a sign of genius.

"He wanted to go in T-shirts and shorts," the usually nattily dressed Scaramucci said. "We had to have a conversation about that." Scaramucci said he called for help from his sister who is a personal shopper at Bloomingdale's. Scaramucci said he ended up buying his mentee a suit. He said he's since seen Bankman-Friend wear it to his court appearances in New York, after his arrest in December and indictment on multiple federal counts, including wire fraud, money laundering, securities fraud and bribery.

"I'm still (expletive) about it," Scaramucci said, "because he's walking around in my suit during the perp walk."

Back to the dinner at the palace: Cohan reported that it was polite. "Dalio spoke about his vision for China. Kushner said nothing. It was more or less a social occasion, not a place for business chatter."

Scaramucci and Bankman-Fried had already made what appeared to be a successful pitch to the Saudi sovereign wealth and venture capital funds, receiving the indication that the Saudis were willing to invest some $250 million in a new FTX funding round, "subject to due diligence."

"It was a very benign dinner," Scaramucci told Cohan. "But in that culture, that was pretty sanctifying to the capital allocators of the kingdom that these are the people the Crown Prince likes." Scaramucci also said he thought Bankman-Friend enjoyed the dinner and was "locked in."

The duo also stopped off in the United Arab Emirates, where Scaramucci said he helped score them a meeting with that country's ruler, Mohamed bin Zayed. Cohan noted that the UAE leader is said to be among the richest men in the world, "with a flair for ruthlessness, not unlike MBS." Bankman-Fried urged Scaramucci to set up the meeting, Cohan reported. "What about Mohammed bin Zayed?" SBF had asked on the flight to the UAE.

Scaramucci offered Cohan another description of helping Bankman-Fried dress for a palace event. He said he loaned Bankman-Fried one of his $450 Charvet ties, saying he told him: "Put the tie on. You can't go to the presidential palace in the United Arab Emirates like that."

According to Scaramucci, they enjoyed another polite meeting with another potentate, with a wide-ranging conversation that stretched from 30 minutes to an hour and a half.

Unfortunately for Bankman-Friend, things started to quickly fall apart after he returned to the Bahamas, where FTX was headquartered. The collapse of FTX shook the volatile crypto market, which immediately lost billions of dollars.

The following month, Bankman-Fried was indicted on multiple fraud charges, with Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney of the Southern District of New York, saying that the disgraced entrepreneur perpetrated "one of the biggest financial frauds" in American history. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty and is free on a $250 million bond, living in his parents' home on the Stanford campus in California.

Meanwhile, Scaramucci has been trying to come to terms with his friendship with Bankman-Fried and being seen as "a mark," Cohan reported.

"What I don't like about our society ... is we've victimized the victims in our society," Scaramucci told Cohan. "So if you're on the Theranos list with (Elizabeth) Holmes, you're a dummy. If you're on the Bernie Madoff list, you're a dummy. If you're on the Sam Bankman-Fried list, you're a dummy. But the truth of the matter is, that's what a fraud is. And whether you like it or not, no matter how much regulation you put in a society, there will always be fraudsters."

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