American citizen Edwin Garrison filed a lawsuit against several celebrities who helped publicize the FTX brokerage, which operated with cryptocurrencies and collapsed. Garrison alleges that he and other investors suffered a combined loss of US$ 11 billion (R$ 59.4 billion) because they believed the advertisements made by athletes and celebrities.
FTX had less than $1 billion (R$5.4 billion) in salable assets, against $9 billion (R$48.6 billion) in liabilities, before it went bankrupt on Nov. .
Before the crash, FTX had a valuation of $32 billion (R$169.6 billion) after striking deals with big investors, and was building a public profile through a range of sports sponsorships, such as securing naming rights. the arena of the Miami Heat basketball team.
The lawsuit against FTX was initiated in Florida, and targets Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the company, American football player Tom Brady, former Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen and players and former basketball athletes like Stephen Curry and Shaquille O’Neal. The list of defendants includes the Golden State Warriors team, from the NBA, and other names, such as tennis player Naomi Osaka and Larry David, one of the creators of the “Seinfeld” series.
The lawsuit cites Brady and Gisele, recently divorced, as “FTX ambassadors” and recalls that they made commercials for the brand in 2021. Garrison considers that FTX advertised aggressively and used celebrities to attract more people to what he calls a pyramid scheme.
Curry, for example, is remembered for being part of a campaign called #notanexpert, in which he said he wasn’t an expert on cryptocurrencies, but that he didn’t have to be, because FTX would take care of everything.
The author calls for celebrities to be held accountable for the billions of dollars in damage they have caused and to make amends.
Celebrities were described in the lawsuit as one of the parties that helped promote FTX. “The deceptive and failed platform was based on misrepresentation and deceptive conduct. (…) We have evidence of how the FTX scam was designed to take advantage of unsophisticated investors. As a result, American consumers have collectively lost more than $11 billion [R$ 59,4 bilhões]”, says the lawsuit, revealed by American media such as Fox Business.
In the lawsuit, the celebrities are accused of crimes including violating Florida’s investor protection laws and against deceptive business practices and civil conspiracy. The action asks that the damages be compensated, and that the case be analyzed by a popular jury.
In addition to the lawsuit, the collapse of FTX could affect the assets of celebrities like Gisele and Brady, who are investors in the company, according to the Bloomberg agency.
FTX has also received investments from Alan Howard of Brevan Howard Asset Management, the family office of Paul Tudor Jones, Millennium Management founder Izzy Englander and other celebrities, according to Bloomberg.
The FTX crisis came after rival Binance pulled out of a deal to buy the competitor after conducting a risk analysis on the operation. In dropping out, Binance cited news reports about mismanaged funds and alleged U.S. investigations into the company.
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