Comic named in class action against celebrities who promoted collapsed crypto exchange

Larry David is being sued over his role in the billion-dollar collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

The Curb Your Enthusiasm creator fronted an advert for the controversial scheme which aired during this year’s Superb Bowl. It showed him poo-poohing the invention of the wheel, coffee, the toilet, the US Constitution and electricity – before being offered the chance to get into crypto.

‘Nah, I don’t think so,’ the Seinfeld co-creator said. ‘And I’m never wrong about this stuff. Never.’

Then up came the caption: ‘Don’t be like Larry, don’t miss out on crypto.’

And even though it turns out his on screen alter-ego was right about investing in the exchange, the comedian has still been named in a class action suit  FTX and its former chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried.

Also named in the lawsuit are NFL quarterback Tom Brady, his model ex-wife Gisele Bundchen, basketball stars Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry – along with his his NBA team the Golden State Warriors – and tennis player Naomi Osaka.

The class action, filed in Florida, says: ‘Some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment have either invested in FTX or been brand ambassadors for the company.

‘A number of them hyped FTX to their social media fans, driving retail consumer adoption of the Deceptive FTX Platform.’

The paper claim the use of celebrities convinced people to pour ‘billions of dollars into the deceptive FTX platform to keep the whole scheme afloat,’ abbd calls the platform ‘a house of cards, a Ponzi scheme where the FTX Entities shuffled customer funds between their opaque affiliated entities… to maintain the appearance of liquidity.’

The case claims that the celebrities broke finance rules in not being transparent about the exact terms of their deal with  FTX, nor performing ‘any due diligence prior to marketing these FTX products to the public.’

Published: 17 Nov 2022