Larry David Is Being Sued for Hawking Cryptocurrency
In the latest installment of the Curb meets crypto controversy, sitcom legend and FTX crash Nostradamus Larry David has been implicated in a class-action lawsuit against FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. David is joined by fellow A-listers Steph Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, Tom Brady and Giselle Bündchen, among other celebrity spokespeople as defendants in the suit that seeks damages from the stars for their part in promoting FTX as both investors and brand ambassadors.
The complaint, which was acquired and posted by Deadline yesterday afternoon, alleges that the crypto empire built by Bankman-Fried and FTX “was based upon false representations and deceptive conduct,” and that the celebrities implicated in the suit “never disclosed the nature, scope and amount of compensation they personally received in exchange for the promotion of the Deceptive FTX Platform,” which, according to plaintiff Edwin Garrison, constitutes “a violation of the anti-touting provisions of the federal securities laws.”
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Maybe real-life Larry David should have taken Super Bowl commercial Larry David’s advice and steered clear of FTX — we hear he’s never wrong about this stuff.
Plaintiffs in suits like these often try to cast as wide a net as possible in full knowledge that not every defendant will be a part of the payout, but the accusations included in the complaint are pointed when it comes to the celebrities who openly admitted in their own commercials that they didn’t understand the crypto market or FTX. In particular, Garrison and his lawyers alleged, “None of these defendants performed any due diligence prior to marketing these FTX products to the public.” Their supportive evidence may as well just be the commercial that shows Curry saying of the crypto market and the trading platform he promoted, “I’m not an expert, and I don’t need to be.”
Though no one is in a position to speculate on which (if any) of these A-listers will ever have to surrender cash to the plaintiffs, the consequences of this lawsuit may include a merciful end to all of the insufferable celebrity crypto commercials that have popped up during the Super Bowl over the last couple of years. Though the crypto philosopher Matt Damon told us that “fortune favors the brave,” some bean-counter named Warren Buffett once said that “risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.”
Between Buffett and David, old bald dudes with glasses are two-for-two when it comes to crypto advice.
