[ad_1]
A string of A-list celebrities who publicly backed disgraced crypto trading platform FTX have been sued in a class action lawsuit worth $11 billion.
Stars including Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Shaquille O’Neal, Steph Curry and Larry David are among those named in the suit filed in Florida.
It claims crypto giant founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, and the celebrities he recruited to endorse the firm are responsible for around $11 billion of losses to American consumers. Many of the stars were ‘ambassadors’ for the trading platform, while others appeared in prime-time commercials.
The suit, filed by class action attorney Adam Moskowitz, alleges they are collectively ‘responsible for the many billions of dollars in damages they caused Plaintiff’. It came as Bankman-Fried continued a desperate attempt to salvage his reputation on Wednesday by admitting: ‘We got overconfident and careless.’
He posted several tweets attempting to explain how FTX crashed and even talked up the firm’s extensive media coverage earlier this year, writing: ‘I was on the cover of every magazine, and FTX was the darling of Silicon Valley.’
Bankman-Fried is already subject to several investigations over the firm’s collapse.
Authorities in America and the Bahamas, where FTX was based and Bankman-Fried is currently holed up, are discussing the possibility of extraditing him to the United States for questioning.
The scandal has triggered a crisis of confidence in cryptocurrency as a whole and caused the value of assets including Bitcoin to plunge.
Bundchen looked glamorous on stage with Sam Bankman-Fried at the Crypto Bahamas event. The FTX chief looked awkward as he opted for his usual outfit of scruffy shorts and t-shirt
The lawsuit followed a series of dramatic developments in the FTX case:
The list of names in the new filing includes: ‘Sam Bankman-Fried, Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors, Shaquille O’Neal, Udonis Haslem, David Ortiz, William Trevor Lawrence, Shohei Ohtani, Naomi Osaka, Lawrence Gene David, and Kevin O’Leary.’
They are described in the 41-page as ‘parties who either controlled, promoted, assisted in, and actively participated in’ FTX’s operations, allegedly in breach of Florida law.
The suit adds: ‘The Deceptive and failed FTX Platform was based upon false representations and deceptive conduct.
‘Although many incriminating FTX emails and texts have already been destroyed, we located them and they evidence how FTX’s fraudulent scheme was designed to take advantage of unsophisticated investors from across the country, who utilize mobile apps to make their investments.
Tom Brady and now ex-wife Gisele Bundchen appeared in an FTX commercial last year. They’re named in a class action lawsuit which alleges the firm’s collapse has cost consumers $11 billion
Brady was filmed at home calling around his friends to sign them up with FTX. The company marketed the ad campaign with the slogan: ‘Tom Brady is in. Are you?’
‘As a result, American consumers collectively sustained over $11 billion dollars in damages.’
NFL star Brady and Bundchen, his supermodel ex-wife, are named as FTX ambassadors who ‘joined the company’s $20-million ad campaign in 2021’ and starred in a commercial ‘showing them telling acquaintances to join the FTX platform’.
Basketballer Curry is singled out for appearing in an ad campaign in which he said he didn’t need to be an expert in crypto because ‘with FTX I have everything I need to buy, sell, and trade crypto safely’.
David appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for FTX which showed him portraying a series of clueless characters as they reject bright ideas through history, including the toilet and the lightbulb.
The ad then showed David reject FTX, before a message appears: ‘Don’t be like Larry.’
Larry David starred in a multimillion dollar Super Bowl ad in which he rejected cryptocurrency before viewers were told: ‘Don’t be like Larry.’
David portrays a number of characters who reject inventions and ideas including the lightbulb, the toilet and space travel. He then rejects FTX – before viewers are told: ‘Don’t be like Larry.’
Steph Curry’s advert showed him telling viewers: ‘I’m not an expert and I don’t need to be, with FTX I have everything I need to buy, sell, and trade crypto safely.’
Shaq donned an FTX-branded sweater as he said: ‘Hey it’s Shaquille O’Neal and I’m excited to be partnering with FTX to help make crypto accessible to everyone. I’m all in, are you?’
Tennis star Naomi Osaka said in her commercial: ‘I’m proud to partner with FTX. Making cryptocurrency accessible is a goal that FTX and I striving towards.’
Shaquille O’Neal also appeared in an FTX commercial, as did Steph Curry. Osaka was an ‘ambassador’ for the company.
The lawsuit states: ‘The Deceptive FTX Platform maintained by the FTX Entities was truly a house of cards, a Ponzi scheme where the FTX Entities shuffled customer funds between their opaque affiliated entities, using new investor funds obtained through investments in the YBAs [yield-bearing accounts] and loans to pay interest to the old ones and to attempt to maintain the appearance of liquidity.
‘Part of the scheme employed by the FTX Entities involved utilizing some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment – like these Defendants – to raise funds and drive American consumers to invest in the [yield-bearing accounts], which were offered and sold largely from the FTX Entities’ domestic base of operations here in Miami, Florida, pouring billions of dollars into the Deceptive FTX Platform to keep the whole scheme afloat.’
The suit was filed in the US District Court’s Southern District of Florida as Bankman-Fried continued his desperate attempts to save his empire.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, he moaned that FTX ‘got overconfident and careless’, writing: ‘I was on the cover of every magazine, and FTX was the darling of Silicon Valley.’
The thread also said: ‘A few weeks ago, FTX was handling ~$10b/day of volume and billions of transfers.
‘But there was too much leverage–more than I realized. A run on the bank and market crash exhausted liquidity.
‘So what can I try to do? Raise liquidity, make customers whole, and restart.
‘Maybe I’ll fail. Maybe I won’t get anything more for customers than what’s already there.
‘I’ve certainly failed before. You all know that now, all too well.
‘But all I can do is to try. I’ve failed enough for the month.
‘And part of me thinks I might get somewhere.’
Bankman-Fried suggested media coverage of FTX made the firm ‘overconfident and careless’
Bundchen (right) on stage with Bankman-Fried in her tole as FTX’s environmental advisor
[ad_2]
Source link
