FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and celebrities who endorsed the platform hit by $11B suit

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and a string of A-list celebrities who backed his failed crypto trading platform have been sued in a class action lawsuit worth $11 billion.

The suit filed in Florida names stars including Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Shaquille O’Neal, Steph Curry and Larry David.

It claims Bankman-Fried, 30, and the celebrities he recruited to endorse FTX are behind losses to American consumers valued at $11 billion.

The suit, filed by class action attorney Adam Moskowitz, alleges they are collectively ‘responsible for the many billions of dollars in damages they caused Plaintiff’. 

Bankman-Fried is already subject to several investigations over the firm’s collapse.

Bankman Fried and several of his celebrity backers are being sued in a class action lawsuit which claims the collapse of FTX has cost American consumers $11 billion

Tom Brady and now ex-wife Gisele Bundchen struck an equity deal with FTX last year. They’re named in a class action lawsuit which alleges the firm’s collapse has cost consumers $11 billion

Naomi Osaka took an equity stake with the popular crypto exchange in March of this year

The list of names in the filing includes: ‘Sam Bankman-Fried, Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, 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.’

They 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.

‘Although many incriminating FTX emails and texts have already been destroyed, we located them and they evidence 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.

Steph Curry inked a partnership with FTX in September 2021, though details were undisclosed

Larry David, who appeared in a Super Bowl ad for FTX, is also named in the lawsuit

‘As a result, American consumers collectively sustained over $11 billion dollars in damages.’

NFL star Brady and Bundchen, his supermodel ex-wife, are named as FTX ambassadors who ‘joined the company’s $20-million ad campaign in 2021’  and starred in a commercial ‘showing them telling acquaintances to join the FTX platform’.

Basketballer Curry is singled out for appearing in an ad campaign in which he said he didn’t need to be an expert in crypto because ‘with FTX I have everything I need to buy, sell, and trade crypto safely’.

David appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for FTX which showed him portraying a series of clueless characters as they reject bright ideas through history, including the toilet and the lightbulb.

The ad then showed David reject FTX, before a message appears: ‘Don’t be like Larry.’

Shaquille O’Neal also appeared in an FTX commercial, as did Steph Curry. Osaka was an ‘ambassador’ for the company.

The lawsuit states: ‘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.

‘Part of the scheme employed by the FTX Entities involved utilizing some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment – like these Defendants – to raise funds and drive American consumers to invest in the [yield-bearing accounts], which were offered and sold largely from the FTX Entities’ domestic base of operations here in Miami, Florida, pouring billions of dollars into the Deceptive FTX Platform to keep the whole scheme afloat.’ 

The suit was filed in the US District Court’s Southern District of Florida as Bankman-Fried continued his desperate attempts to save his empire. 

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, he said: ‘A few weeks ago, FTX was handling ~$10b/day of volume and billions of transfers.

‘But there was too much leverage–more than I realized. A run on the bank and market crash exhausted liquidity.

‘So what can I try to do? Raise liquidity, make customers whole, and restart.

‘Maybe I’ll fail. Maybe I won’t get anything more for customers than what’s already there.

‘I’ve certainly failed before. You all know that now, all too well.

‘But all I can do is to try. I’ve failed enough for the month.

‘And part of me thinks I might get somewhere.’