A new lawsuit against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is naming several celebrities and athletes as co-defendants.
The class action complaint, which Oklahoma resident Edwin Garrison filed with the U.S. District Court, Southern District Of Florida, seeks to hold the defendants accountable for billions of dollars in damages following the collapse of FTX.
The suit claims that FTX’s celebrity endorsers engaged in deceptive practices when they promoted the trading platform. It also alleges that none of the defendants performed due diligence prior to marketing the products of the now-bankrupt firm.
“Although Defendants disclosed their partnerships with the FTX Entities, they have never disclosed the nature, scope, and amount of compensation they personally received in exchange for the promotion of the Deceptive FTX Platform, which the SEC has explained that a failure to disclose this information would be a violation of the anti-touting provisions of the federal securities laws.”
The celebrity defendants include football quarterbacks Tom Brady and William Trevor Lawrence, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, NBA stars Stephen Curry and Udonis Haslem, basketball icon Shaquille O’Neal, tennis star Naomi Osaka, comedian Larry David, baseball legend David Ortiz, baseball pitcher Shohei Ohtani, Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary and the NBA team Golden State Warriors.
FTX executives are also facing allegations of mishandling customer funds. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Bankman-Fried, Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX director of engineering Nishad Singh and FTX CTO Gary Wang were aware that the Bahamas-based exchange was loaning out customer funds to its sister firm Alameda.
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