Jailed FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried turns on his celebrity endorsers including ... trends now
Fallen cryptocurrency wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving a 25 year prison sentence following a sweeping fraud case, has agreed to cooperate in a class-action lawsuit against celebrities who promoted his crypto exchange.
By agreeing to cooperate with the investors, they will now drop their civil liability claims against him.
The celebrities include some big name sports starts including Tom Brady, Shaquille O'Neal, Stephen Curry and Shohei Ohtani.
Brady's ex-wife Gisele Bundchen and actor Larry David are also among the names accused of promoting unregistered securities for FTX and enticing investors into a Ponzi scheme.
The lawsuit claims crypto Bankman-Fried and the celebrities he recruited to endorse the firm are responsible for around $11 billion of losses to American consumers.
Former FTX chief, Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving 25 years behind bars has reached an agreement with investors to settle their civil claims
Bankman-Fried will cooperate in a class-action lawsuit targeting celebrities including Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen who promoted FTX, with the aim of resolving current and future civil claims
Bankman-Fried is pictured with Gisele Bundchen at a Crypto Bahamas conference in April '22
Many of the stars were 'ambassadors' for the trading platform, while others appeared in prime-time commercials.
The plaintiffs hope they might be able to recover some of their losses following the collapse of FTX in November 2022.
Bankman-Fried, 32, appealed his federal conviction earlier this month after US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan set the prison term and ordered him to pay $11 billion in forfeiture.
But in return for dropping him from the lawsuit, Bankman-Fried would hand over all nonprivileged documents detailing his assets and his investment in artificial intelligence start-up Anthropc, an affidavit certifying his net worth as negative, and documents about other defendants in the wide-ranging civil litigation.
Bankman-Fried has also agreed to divulge any information he can about venture capital firms that invested in FTX together with a list of accountants and lawyers that worked with the exchange.
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Tom Brady and now ex-wife Gisele Bundchen appeared in an FTX commercial in 2022. 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?'
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.'
It's not clear what liability any superstar endorsement might be liable for given that Bankman-Fried paid the celebrities to boost the profile of his crypto empire.
Pro football quarterback Trevor Lawrence received $500,000 payment in September 2022, reports Bloomberg.
The celebrities 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.
