Celebrity endorsers of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, including Larry David, Tom Brady, Giselle Bündchen, Shaquille O’Neal, and Stephen Curry, have been named in a class-action lawsuit accusing FTX and its “brand ambassadors” of misleading consumers into investing in the company.
According to the court documents, the plaintiff, Edwin Garrison, purchased and funded his account with enough crypto assets to earn interest on his holdings but suffered “sustained damages” in the FTX collapse.
I’ve been warning for years that all the people who made money in crypto will be sued by all the people who lost money in crypto. So lawyer up pumpers
stated economist, and financial broker, Peter Schiff in his tweet, mentioning his warning Tweets posted on August 22 and May 12.
I’ve been warning for years that all the people who made money in #crypto will be sued by all the people who lost money in crypto. So lawyer up pumpers.https://t.co/0UDK69O7nA
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) November 17, 2022
The suit is the latest against FTX, which filed for bankruptcy last week and is under federal investigation for using customer funds to pay Alameda Research, a trading firm owned by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. According to the lawsuit, American consumers collectively suffered over $11 billion in damages.
According to the lawsuit, FTX and ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried used celebrity endorsers to target “unsophisticated investors” in a “Ponzi scheme” to keep the crypto exchange sustainable.
The suit claims that celebrity endorsers such as David, who filmed a Super Bowl commercial for FTX, engaged in deceptive practices to sell FTX yield-bearing digital currency accounts. Brady and Bundchen are named in the suit because they appeared in a company advertisement last year.
The lawsuit also names “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, tennis player Naomi Osaka, and Miami Heat star Udonis Haslem as defendants.
Part of the scheme employed by the FTX Entities involved utilizing some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment … pouring billions of dollars into the Deceptive FTX Platform to keep the whole scheme afloat,
the lawsuit states.
A group led by David Boies, who represented Al Gore in the famous Bush v. Gore case, and Adam Moskowitz filed the suit in Miami’s Southern District of Florida.
