FTX and former chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried were sued by an investor over claims that the cryptocurrency exchange now in crisis targeted "unsophisticated investors" using celebrity endorsers including Tom Brady and Stephen Curry, who are also named as defendants.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Miami, Oklahoma resident Edwin Garrison is asking to represent a class of "thousands, if not millions, of consumers nationwide." That includes all investors in the US who were enrolled in yield-bearing FTX crypto accounts, which he alleges constitute unregistered securities in violation of US and Florida laws.
Garrison claims FTX used celebrities, who along with Brady and Curry also included Gisele Bundchen and Shaquille O'Neal, to promote the exchange's unregistered securities and funnel investors into a Ponzi scheme. Football star Brady and his then-wife Bundchen filmed a commercial called "FTX. You In?" that showed them encouraging acquaintances to join the platform, according to the complaint.
Lawyers for FTX didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the suit. Representatives of Brady and Bundchen didn't immediately respond to emails.
"FTX's fraudulent scheme was designed to take advantage of unsophisticated investors from across the country, who utilize mobile apps to make their investments," Garrison said in the suit. "As a result, American consumers collectively sustained over $11 billion" in damages.
Garrison's legal team said in the lawsuit that it had found "many incriminating FTX emails and texts" but didn't say what was in them or what made them incriminating.
