Anthony Scaramucci, Hedge Fund Showman, Finds Himself in Limbo

Hedge fund managers know him as one of their own — the wealthy, backslapping host of their industry’s splashiest conference each year in Las Vegas.


Regulars at the World Economic Forum know him as the politically connected insider who organizes an annual wine tasting party in the Swiss Alps.

President Trump knows him as a major Wall Street fund-raiser with hopes of joining the administration.

But as Anthony Scaramucci presided over his annual SkyBridge Alternatives Conference, known as SALT, at the Bellagio Las Vegas hotel this week, he was not quite any of these things.

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Mr. Scaramucci sold his stake in SkyBridge Capital, his hedge fund of funds business, early this year, leaving him without a financial institution to his name. His hoped-for job in the Trump administration did not materialize. And an effort to disentangle himself from his business wound up raising conflict-of-interest questions.

On Thursday, William A. Ackman, the billionaire investor who has had a two-year losing streak, described how he was “extremely humbled” by his losses. Mr. Scaramucci, who was interviewing him, said he empathized. “Unfortunately, I have been there,” Mr. Scaramucci said.

The lack of a clearly defined role did not stop Mr. Scaramucci, known as the Mooch, from continuing to angle for a role in the White House.

“I am ready to serve,” he said in opening remarks at SALT on Wednesday. “And so, to the extent the president needs me, I will be available to him.”

In the absence of a new job, Mr. Scaramucci, in a rambling confessional before hundreds of hedge fund insiders, offered hints about his future.

“I remain loyal to the president and to the cause,” he said, telling a story about shaking hands with people at a Trump rally in Albuquerque and learning about the economic desperation many Americans face.

“It took a billionaire who lives in a tower on Fifth Avenue next to the Tiffany’s jewelry store to show me something that I missed from my own neighborhood,” he said, referring to his upbringing on Long Island, which he has described as a blue-collar community.

Mr. Scaramucci’s state of limbo is a stark turnaround for a man who, just months ago, seemed to be on the fast track to a senior role in the Trump administration.

“Anthony is an entrepreneur and a good man,” said Leon G. Cooperman, a hedge fund manager. “He professionalized the industry, and SALT is the highlight of the industry.”

Mr. Cooperman, who has addressed SALT panels in previous years but was not at the conference this year, said Mr. Scaramucci “would have been a good addition to the administration” but added that Mr. Trump “has already appointed many intelligent people.”

Mr. Scaramucci, 53, did not reply to requests for comment.

In what has become industry lore, he transformed SkyBridge from a small seeding business on the brink of failure to a large fund of funds by buying Citigroup’s hedge fund business in early 2010, as the bank was trying to shed risky assets.

A longtime Republican donor, Mr. Scaramucci supported a handful candidates, including Scott Walker and Jeb Bush, in the presidential primaries last year. Along the way, he accused Mr. Trump of being a “hack politician” who had a “big mouth.”

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