Disgraced ‘crypto king’ Sam Bankman-Fried is set to turn on celebrities including Tom Brady and Larry David in a new class-action lawsuit after they endorsed his failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence on fraud charges after he was found guilty of lying to investors and customers of his company FTX.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court’s Southern District of Florida, alleges that Bankman-Fried and celebrities including NFL star Tom Brady and comedian Larry David are responsible for around $11bn of losses to American consumers.
Brady and his now ex-wife Gisele Bundchen appeared in an FTX commercial in 2022. In the commercial, 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?’
Meanwhile, David starred in a multi-million-dollar Super Bowl ad for the company in which he rejected cryptocurrency before viewers were then told: ‘Don’t be like Larry.’
Sports stars Stephen Curry, Shaquille O’Neal and Naomi Osaka are also among those named in the lawsuit after starring in commercials promoting FTX.
Bankman-Fried was also named in the lawsuit but, on Friday, agreed to cooperate with the plaintiffs in the case in exchange for them dropping their civil liability claims against him.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are proposing that Bankman-Fried assists in prosecuting FTX influencers and aids in victim recovery by handing over all non-privileged documents and testimony provided during his criminal trial.
However, it is unclear what damages the celebrities might be liable for since they were paid by Bankman-Fried to boost the profile of his crypto empire.
The celebrities are described in the 41-page lawsuit 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.
Bankman-Fried was convicted by a federal jury in New York in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud, embezzlement and criminal conspiracy. In March, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11.2bn.
