He’s coming for Tom Brady… and others.
Turn Tables
To save his own hide, disgraced FTX fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to work with prosecutors to name and blame some of the celebrities who shilled his company.
As Bloomberg reports, disgruntled investors have agreed to drop their cases against Bankman-Fried in exchange for his cooperation, which will shield him from further civil liability if he follows through.
In particular, the group of FTX investors is looking for information about sports stars who shilled the exchange, including Shaquille O’Neal, Stephen Curry, Naomi Osaka, Tom Brady, as well as Brady’s ex-wife [right?], supermodel Gisele Bundchen.
Along with those celebrities, the plaintiffs are requiring that Bankman-Fried provide whatever information he can about venture capital firms, lawyers, and accountants that invested in or worked with the crypto exchange. The settlement also requires, as Bloomberg notes, that SBF turn over documents about his investment in the AI firm Anthropic.
Circling Back
News of this settlement, which was filed Friday in a Florida federal court, comes just weeks after SBF’s 25-year prison sentence was handed down, the result of the findings from his bombastic trial earlier this year in which he was found guilty of fraud — and the public learned just how fast and loose the 32-year-old played with investor money.
Bankman-Fried is joined in cooperation by fellow FTX insiders, including former executives like Nishad Singh, Gary Wang, and Caroline Ellison — who also, as you likely recall, was Bankman-Fried’s on-off girlfriend.
According to the filing, those three have already begun handing over information to prosecutors, as has Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who in September 2022 got a $500,000 check from an FTX affiliate in exchange for his endorsement.
SBF spokesperson Mark Botnick told the website that the onetime crypto wunderkind is seeking to make things right in the wake of his prison sentence.
“Since the collapse of FTX, Mr. Bankman-Fried has been singularly focused on returning the estate’s assets to customers,” Botnick said, “who could and should be made whole as of current prices.”
Indeed, if the plaintiffs win their case, they could get up to $1.3 million in settlement restitution, Bloomberg reports — which certainly would soften the blow of their collective losses.
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