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☆ Boies law firm makes odd moves in FTX case against Tom Brady, celebs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Alison Frankel | Thomson Reuters | Alison Frankel Has Covered High-Stakes Commercial Litigation As A Columnist For Reuters Since A Dartmouth College Graduate | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

That was apparently not what the Boies and Moskowitz firms were hoping. In mid-November, the firms filed the first of their three FTX lawsuits in federal court. On Nov. 21, the Boies and Moskowitz firms filed a second FTX class action, this time on behalf of non-U.S. FTX customers. The day after Bloom’s assignment to the case, the Moskowitz and Boies firms voluntarily dismissed the two previously-filed FTX class actions before Moore and Gayles. “As we got more cases, we filed more cases,” Moskowitz said.

Shaquille O'Neal wants to make one thing clear: He doesn't believe in crypto, if he ever did. That's after being named in a class-action lawsuit against now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX last month, for promoting the company in a June commercial. "A lot of people think I'm involved, but I was just a paid spokesperson for a commercial," O'Neal says. Customers have been unable to withdraw funds from FTX since the company declared bankruptcy last month. Texas is now separately investigating some celebrity FTX endorsers for potentially violating state securities laws, according to Bloomberg.

CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin reported that the charges against Bankman-Fried include wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering. Neither the Attorney General of the Bahamas nor the Royal Bahamas Police Force would confirm the nature of the charges against Bankman-Fried. "I didn't ever try to commit fraud," Bankman-Fried said. The CFTC and lawmakers have begun their probes into FTX and Bankman-Fried, who told Sorkin he was down to his last $100,000. Failed lender BlockFi sued Bankman-Fried in November, seeking unnamed collateral that the FTX founder provided for the crypto lending firm.

☆ FTX spokesman Kevin O'Leary says he lost his $15 million payday from crypto firm
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Investor, "Shark Tank" judge and CNBC contributor Kevin O'Leary said Thursday he's lost all of the $15 million FTX paid him to act as a paid spokesman for the now collapsed crypto exchange that some have called fraudulent. The Canadian investor was grilled by CNBC's "Squawk Box" hosts over his failure to properly assess the risks associated with investing and promoting FTX. "Total deal was just under $15 million, all in," O'Leary said Thursday morning on CNBC's "Squawk Box." O'Leary also said he had over $1 million of FTX equity, now rendered worthless by the bankruptcy protection process. O'Leary promoted FTX aggressively on Twitter and online, touting his close connection with disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is facing multiple investigations.

Three people close to FTX and Bankman-Fried told CNBC that the former CEO lobbied aggressively for a partnership with 11-time Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift. Bankman-Fried's commitment to getting the Swift deal done despite the deteriorating business environment fit a pattern of ignoring his lieutenants and going it alone, a half-dozen former company insiders and business partners said. The Financial Times reported earlier that FTX held talks with Swift about a potential sponsorship. Part of the Swift deal would have included the production by the singer of a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), or digital items that can rise and fall in value. Beyond that, there was a lack of clarity over what Swift would be doing for the company, sources said.

Bankman-Fried could face a host of potential charges – civil and criminal – as well as private lawsuits from millions of FTX creditors, legal experts told CNBC. There are three different, possibly simultaneous legal threats that Bankman-Fried faces in the United States alone, Levin told CNBC. He told CNBC, "prosecutors would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bankman-Fried or his associates committed criminal fraud." (Carter was not an FTX investor, and told CNBC that his fund passed on early FTX rounds.) "People should not jump to the conclusion that something is not happening just because it has not been publicly disclosed," Levin told CNBC.

The answer is simple, according to more than a dozen Washington insiders, FTX employees, and crypto industry observers who spoke with Insider. I don't think anyone believed that he was going to fund candidates who were, quote unquote, committed to ending pandemics who were also hostile to the crypto industry." Alex Wong/Getty ImagesRebuffed by the SEC, Bankman-Fried turned his attention to Congress. "It's not that he was welcoming regulation," says the senior figure in the crypto industry who attended meetings with Bankman-Fried. But while Bankman-Fried was busy wooing Washington, FTX was about to become Exhibit A in the case for more effective oversight of the crypto industry.

☆ Factbox: Crypto companies crash into bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The price of bitcoin has dropped 65% since the start of the year, the cryptocurrency Luna suffered a total collapse in value, and crypto exchange FTX went from buying Super Bowl ads to crash landing into bankruptcy. Here are the major crypto companies that have gone bankrupt in 2022. BLOCKFICrypto lender BlockFi was the first crypto company to follow FTX into bankruptcy, filing for Chapter 11 about two weeks after FTX's collapse. The proposed sale fell through following FTX's implosion, and Voyager reopened discussions with other potential buyers, including the crypto exchange Binance. Celsius' bankruptcy judge has appointed an examiner to investigate whether Celsius operated as a Ponzi scheme and to broadly review the company's finances.

☆ Crypto crash leaves media companies with budget holes as advertising dries up
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

In Alphabet 's third-quarter earnings call last month, the company blamed a slowdown in revenue growth in part on reduced ad spending by cypto companies and other financial firms. A 30-second spot during the NFL's grand finale in February cost an average of $6.5 million, and crypto was a huge theme. Crypto.com's online ad spending plummeted from about $16.2 million in the first quarter to $1.6 million in the third, SensorTower said. The crypto market has suffered downturns in the past, only to bounce back and attract even greater sums of cash and new entrants. WATCH: FTX's bankruptcy puts increased pressure on the ad market

Companies Ledgerx LLC FollowNov 21 (Reuters) - The Golden State Warriors were sued on Monday by an FTX customer who accused the reigning National Basketball Association champions of fraudulently promoting the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange. The Warriors last December had named FTX its official cryptocurrency platform, in what it called a first-of-its-kind cryptocurrency partnership in professional sports. The lawsuit seeks damages under California consumer laws for customers outside the United States with FTX yield-bearing accounts. Another NBA team, the Miami Heat, on Nov. 11 said it would drop the FTX name from its arena and seek a new naming sponsor. The Heat is not a defendant in the Miami lawsuit.

☆ Binance drops new ad with Cristiano Ronaldo as FTX celeb endorsers like Tom Brady and Steph Curry face a lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Binance launched its first global marketing campaign, and it features soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. As the World Cup begins, Ronaldo is launching is first NFT collection under the Binance partnership. Meanwhile, FTX celebrity endorsers like Steph Curry and Tom Brady are facing a lawsuit for promoting the fallen crypto exchange. As the World Cup begins, the ad campaign coincides with Ronaldo's non-fungible token collection that became available on Friday as part of a multiyear partnership with Binance. The Ronaldo deal also comes as investors filed a lawsuit against pro athletes who promoted FTX, including Tom Brady, Steph Curry, David Ortiz, as well as celebrities like Larry David and Kevin O'Leary.

☆ Look inside Ellen DeGeneres's latest home for sale — a $5.8 million century-old Montecito cottage with a posh outdoor dining space and a guest house
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi have been busy flipping houses in Montecito. If sold, the property would be DeGeneres' 8th home sale just this year. The 64-year-old comic and wife Portia de Rossi have listed their posh 1,900-square-foot cottage in Montecito, California for sale for $5.8 million. DeGeneres purchased the home just six months ago for $5.4 million, according to a report by Dirt. There's also an outdoor dining area in one of the property's most shaded areas, and a one-bedroom guest cabin.

☆ FTX flop evokes history’s great financial swindles
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

As Walter Bagehot wrote in “Lombard Street” in 1873, “The good times too of high price almost always engender much fraud. As cryptocurrencies declined in value, FTX provided a line of credit to BlockFi, a stricken crypto-lender. He talked about Three Arrows Capital, the failed crypto hedge fund, as engaged in “punting”. His firm launched a product based on a basket of crypto assets that it called Shitcoin Index Perpetual Futures, with the unsubtle ticker SHIT-PERP. He commissioned an advertisement, aired during the Super Bowl, in which the comedian Larry David casts doubt on the viability of FTX.

☆ Warren Buffett's Berkshire warns about crypto website using its name
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 18 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N), run by billionaire Warren Buffett, on Friday warned investors it has no affiliation with a purported cryptocurrency brokerage website using the Berkshire Hathaway name. It includes purported customer testimonials and says the broker is regulated in the United States, United Kingdom, Cyprus and South Africa, using incorrect names for two regulators. In a statement, Buffett's company said it learned about the website, berkshirehathawaytx.com, on Friday afternoon. "The entity who has this web address has no affiliation with Berkshire Hathaway Inc or its Chairman and CEO, Warren E. Buffett," Berkshire said. Buffett has run Berkshire Hathaway Inc since 1965.

☆ FTX’s Unraveling Is Latest Blow to Softening Ad Market
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Suzanne Vranica | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX spent tens of millions of dollars over the past couple of years on slick marketing efforts, including sports-sponsorship deals and celebrity-laden TV ads featuring Tom Brady and Larry David. Then, last week, FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in the midst of a liquidity crisis, sending shock waves throughout the crypto world and putting in question an important revenue stream for advertising, sports-sponsorship and media businesses already coping with a softening ad market.

"It was like a bomb went off in that place," Patrick Hillmann, Binance CSO, told CNBC on Thursday. It was money that FTX didn't have, because it was using client deposits for other purposes. "Somehow they were always spending more and more and more and more money," Hillmann said. Hillmann said that early on there were some concerns with FTX and its unsavory relationship with Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's hedge fund. WATCH: Binance decided FTX was beyond saving after two-hour review of balance sheet

☆ Googlers are making memes to deal with the looming threat of job cuts
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Meanwhile, former Yahoo CEO and one-time Google exec Marissa Mayer is sounding the alarm bell that the web itself could be degrading in quality. Google employees meme past the graveyard. Elon Musk fired as many as two dozen Twitter employees this week who had criticized his leadership style. Now, Twitter employees are deleting internal Slack messages they fear Musk won't like, so as to avoid his wrath. A Twitter exec went so far as to warn employees to use Slack "wisely."

Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. crypto investors sued FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and several celebrities who promoted his exchange including NFL quarterback Tom Brady and comedian Larry David, claiming they engaged in deceptive practices to sell FTX yield-bearing digital currency accounts. The proposed class action filed on Tuesday night in Miami alleges that FTX yield-bearing accounts were unregistered securities that were unlawfully sold in the United States. When the crypto exchange faltered on liquidity concerns, U.S. investors sustained $11 billion in damages, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit seeks damages from Bankman-Fried and 11 athletes and other celebrities who promoted FTX, including David, the creator of "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Sean Masson, an attorney at Scott+Scott who represents crypto investors in the EMAX case, said investors have used the Florida unfair trade law to target crypto promoters in lawsuits that are pending.

☆ Tom Brady, Larry David and other celebrities named in FTX lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Minyvonne Burke | Minyvonne Burke Is A Senior Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that the crypto platform FTX and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried violated Florida law, misled customers and cost investors billions of dollars in damages. Garrison says he lost money after the crypto exchange was forced to stop customers from withdrawing funds. The suit blames Bankman-Fried and the bevy of celebrities who promoted the company for the losses suffered by the investors. Also named in the lawsuit is Larry David, the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star who appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for FTX. Larry David stars in a Super Bowl commercial for the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

☆ Investors have filed a lawsuit against FTX celeb endorsers like Tom Brady, Steph Curry, and Larry David
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Nathan Mcalone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Investors have filed a lawsuit against celebs who promoted the defunct crypto exchange FTX. The suit names celebs who range from sports stars like Tom Brady and Steph Curry to Larry David. FTX, which filed for bankruptcy on Friday, had invested millions in promotions like high-profile partnerships with celebs, sponsorships including the Miami Heat's FTX Arena, and deals with finance influencers. Several finance influencers who promoted FTX have apologized to their fans in recent days, including YouTuber Graham Stephan, Insider previously reported. FTX and representatives for Brady, Curry, Ortiz, David, and O'Leary did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. crypto investors sued FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and several celebrities who promoted his exchange including comedian Larry David, alleging they engaged in deceptive practices to sell FTX yield-bearing digital currency accounts. The proposed class action filed late Tuesday night in Miami alleges that FTX yield-bearing accounts were unregistered securities that were unlawfully sold in the U.S. When the crypto exchange faltered on liquidity concerns, U.S. investors sustained $11 billion in damages, the lawsuit alleges. Representatives for Bankman-Fried, Brady, Osaka and the Golden State Warriors did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. FTX filed for bankruptcy and is facing scrutiny from U.S. authorities amid reports that $10 billion in customer assets were shifted from FTX to Bankman-Fried's trading company Alameda Research.

☆ Larry David predicted FTX’s implosion
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN Business —Larry David made a prediction about this week’s crypto meltdown that was prettaaay prettaaay good. In a Super Bowl ad for the FTX crypto exchange in February, Larry David sarcastically predicted that FTX wasn’t going to make it. At the end of the ad, David learns about FTX, “a safe and easy way to get into crypto.” A dismissive David says, “Ehhh, I don’t think so. And I’m never wrong about this stuff — never.”“Don’t be like Larry,” the FTX ad closes. The full extent of FTX’s financial problems aren’t yet known, but multiple reports say the firm is facing an $8 billion shortfall.

☆ How a media executive you've never heard of brokered one of the most consequential deals in Hollywood — and brought us 'Seinfeld'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Jane Biondi Munna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

In a new book, Jane Biondi Munna recounts highlights from her father Frank Biondi's career. In a new book, Biondi's daughter, Jane Biondi Munna, recorded and compiled the story of his career. The author, Jane Biondi Munna, and her late father, Frank Biondi. Apparently some guy, some comedy writer, was living in his car — actually living in his car — when he sold the show to Castle Rock, and Castle Rock sold it to NBC. From LET'S BE FRANK: A Daughter's Tribute to Her Father, The Media Mogul You've Never Heard of by Jane Biondi Munna.

☆ Earnings have been mostly good. Just avoid the tech wreck
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | Cnn Business | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Corporate earnings have actually been, to quote "Curb Your Enthusiasm's" Larry David, pretty, pretty good. The Dow was up more than 300 points, or 1%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.6%. what used to be dubbed FAANG stocks before name and ticker changes) make up a big chunk of the weighting of the S&P 500. Nearly three-quarters of the S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far have topped forecasts. So the weaker earnings are more a function of higher costs as opposed to a significant slowdown in sales.

☆ What to Know About (Legally) Marketing Crypto Assets
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-06 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CMO Today CMO Today delivers the most important news of the day for media and marketing professionals. The cryptocurrency boom has attracted many investors, including less experienced ones, raising questions about what is appropriate when marketing these types of assets. “Over time, especially in the crypto space, we’ve seen [people] try to call it different things to avoid the securities laws,” Mr. Gerold said. What is something else?” Mr. Gerold said. Mr. Gerold said it can depend on what the stars are saying in these ads.

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