Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen and Shaquille O’Neal sued for endorsing Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto platform
FLORIDA, US: After the biggest crypto trading platform 'FTX' collapsed a bunch of A-lister celebrities who publicly backed the ponzi social media giant are now being sued in a class action lawsuit worth $11 billion. The suit filed in Florida includes famous stars such as Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, who are named as FTX ambassadors, Shaquille O'Neal, Steph Curry and Larry David.
The scandal-ridden crypto giant founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, is already being investigated over the firm's collapse. Bankman-Fried and the many celebrities he recruited to endorse the firm are responsible for around $11 billion worth of losses to American consumers. Many of the celebrities were named as ambassadors, while others appeared in part-time commercials. The muckraking scandal and the firm's collapse have triggered a crisis of confidence in cryptocurrency, that has even caused the value of assets such as Bitcoin to plunge.
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FTX CEO Bankman-Fried who is known to have founded one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world is currently being held up in the Bahamas, where FTX was based. Authorities are considering extraditing the crypto mogul to the United States for questioning. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court's Southern District of Florida. In a series of tweets Bankman-Fried on Wednesday, November 16, even admitted, "We got overconfident and Careless."
20) I was on the cover of every magazine, and FTX was the darling of Silicon Valley.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 16, 2022
We got overconfident and careless.
The new filing includes names such as, Sam Bankman-Fried, Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, 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, reported Daily Mail. They are described as "parties who either controlled, promoted, assisted in, and actively participated in" FTX's operations, reported the source. The suit adds, "The Deceptive and failed FTX Platform was based upon false representations and deceptive conduct.
Even though most of FTX's emails and texts have been destroyed, authorities collected evidence that shows 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." NFL star Brady and his ex-wife Bundchen joined the $20 million ad campaign in 2021 and started in commercials telling others to join the platform. Naomi Osaka was an ambassador for the company. Stephen Curry, Larry David, and Shaquille O’Neal indulged in commercially promoting the platform.
The lawsuit claimed, "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," reported the source.