As cryptocurrency exchange firm FTX soared financially, one of its visible promoters was Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry, who told viewers in a
video ad
that “I’m not an expert, and I don’t need to be. With FTX I have everything I need to buy, sell, and trade crypto safely.” The Warriors, meanwhile, displayed the FTX logo on the floor of their home court at Chase Arena.
Then FTX imploded this month, losing billions of dollars and
filing for bankruptcy. And now an investor has filed a proposed class-action suit on behalf of “thousands, if not millions” of customers seeking damages from Curry, the Warriors and other FTX “ambassadors,” including basketball great Shaquille O’Neal, football star Tom Brady, baseball stars David Ortiz and Shohei Ohtani, and tennis ace Naomi Osaka, as well as the company’s founder.
The purpose of ads like Curry’s was “to facilitate the sales of (FTX accounts) to unsuspecting and unwitting retail consumers,” plaintiff Edwin Garrison said in a suit filed Tuesday in federal court in Miami. The suit said FTX has used “some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment —like these Defendants — to raise funds and drive American consumers to invest” in a “fraudulent scheme… designed to take advantage of unsophisticated investors from across the country.”
Garrison’s attorneys,…
