The Golden State Warriors and star player Stephen Curry are among the notable defendants in a class-action suit filed in the wake of the collapse of FTX Trading Ltd.
Oklahoma resident Edwin Garrison filed the complaint in federal court in South Florida Tuesday against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and a host of celebrities Bankman-Fried hired to promote FTX's cryptocurrency exchange. In his complaint, Garrison charged that FTX illicitly offered interest-bearing cryptocurrency accounts without registering them with state regulators.
The Warriors helped market FTX through a logo on their home court at Chase Center in San Francisco and via in-arena advertising, according to the suit. Meanwhile, Curry and other celebrities, including football star Tom Brady and comedian Larry David, appeared in advertisements for the cryptocurrency company.
In promoting FTX, the Warriors, Curry and the other celebrities defrauded FTX customers by misrepresenting what the company was actually doing and luring them to its service, Garrison said in his suit. "The purpose of Curry being an ambassador is to expand the reach of the crypto firm and ... drive adoption of the Deceptive FTX Platform and to facilitate the sales of unregistered to unsuspecting and unwitting retail consumers," the lawsuit charged.