A lawsuit says that a lifelong New England Patriots fan who looked up to Tom Brady put almost all of his life savings into FTX after the future Hall of Fame quarterback talked about it in commercials.
Michael Livieratos, a 56-year-old legal clerk from Connecticut, moved $30,000 in crypto in the now-defunct company started by Sam Bankman-Fried, who was indicted on fraud charges this week.
“I’ve been a fan of the New England Patriots my whole life, so you can imagine how much Tom Brady would mean to me,” Livieratos told The Washington Post.
Livieratos hired Florida lawyer Adam Moskowitz, who sued Brady and “Shark Tank” co-host Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary, another FTX salesman, in Miami federal court last month.
The lawsuit says that O’Leary and Brady “promoted, helped, and actively took part in” FTX’s “offer and sale of unregistered securities.”
Tom Brady poses with Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX who has been in trouble for wrongdoing.
Last month, FTX filed for bankruptcy. This was a huge drop for a company that was worth $40 billion at the height of the cryptocurrency boom.
The lawsuit says that Mr. Livieratos’ assets in his yield-bearing account were taken from him “literally overnight” when FTX collapsed and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The lawsuit, which wants unspecified damages, says that O’Leary and Brady are to blame for “misrepresentations and omissions” while “aggressively marketing” FTX’s “deceptive” practices.
The lawsuit says that O’Leary, Brady, and other celebrities “hyped FTX to their social media fans, which led retail consumers to use the misleading FTX platform.”
O’Leary recently said that he had lost the $15 million FTX paid him to be a spokesperson.
Last year, Brady and his ex-wife Gisele Bundchen both bought shares in FTX. The amount wasn’t said, but the company said at the time of the deal that the two had agreed to give millions of dollars to FTX’s effective altruism mission.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that Bankman-Fried would be charged with a number of crimes, including wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud.
If Bankman-Fried is found guilty, she could spend up to 115 years in prison. He is being held in a Bahamian jail, where he is fighting against being sent to the US.
In the wake of FTX’s failure, class-action lawsuits have been filed against Larry David, Stephen Curry, Naomi Osaka, and others who endorsed the company.
The man from Connecticut who is suing Brady is represented by Adam Moskowitz, a lawyer from Florida.
The Washington Post, by way of Getty Images
Binance, a rival cryptocurrency exchange, sold all of its FTT tokens, which is FTX’s own digital coin. This caused the company to fall apart.
When Binance found out that Bankman-Fried was using customer funds to pay off debts owed by sister hedge fund Alameda Research, it got rid of its FTT holdings and stopped helping FTX.
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