Crypto lawsuit against Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, and the Golden State Warriors gets the cooperation of a former FTX exec

Former compliance chief of FTX, Dan Friedberg, has reportedly provided evidence to support a lawsuit against celebrities who promoted the exchange. According to an amended complaint filed on May 11th, Friedberg’s evidence shows that significant FTX promotional activity occurred in Florida, despite some of the defendants claiming that they shouldn’t be part of the lawsuit because they don’t reside in the state. The case accuses eleven individuals, including sports stars Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, and Naomi Osaka, and comedian Larry David, along with the Golden State Warriors, of promoting unregistered securities by serving as brand ambassadors for FTX. The plaintiffs claim that under Florida law, the celebrities and the Warriors are responsible for the losses suffered by customers when FTX-listed cryptocurrencies lost value. The lawsuit seeks billions of dollars worth of damages. While some defendants argue that the lawsuit has no “personal jurisdiction” over them because they didn’t perform any activities related to FTX in Florida, Friedberg’s evidence reportedly shows that Florida has more connections to the FTX brand ambassador defendants than any other state. Dan Friedberg was previously a defendant in the original complaint, but agreed to cooperate with plaintiffs to be freed from liability. Friedberg was the former chief regulatory officer for FTX and chief compliance officer for the exchange’s US arm before resigning in November 2022 as the crypto empire of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, collapsed.