- Taylor Swift pulled out of a $100 million sponsorship deal with Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX.
- A lawyer suing celebrities for promoting FTX says Swift alone asked about unregistered securities.
- Both Tom Brady and Stephen Curry are being sued for endorsing the now-bankrupt crypto exchange.
Taylor Swift avoided signing a $100 million sponsorship deal with FTX because she was the only celebrity to question the crypto exchange, according to the lawyer handling a class-action lawsuit against several FTX promoters.
Adam Moskowitz appeared on “The Scoop” podcast to discuss the lawsuit, and said that the plaintiffs are seeking over $5 billion from FTX’s celebrity endorsers, including Shaquille O’Neal, Tom Brady, and Larry David.
The lawyer alleged that celebrities didn’t do their due diligence to check whether FTX was breaking the law. “The one person I found that did that was Taylor Swift,” Moskowitz told The Scoop’s Frank Chaparro, adding that Swift pulled out of the deal and never promoted the now-bankrupt exchange
The singer – whose father used to work for Merrill Lynch – began discussing the $100 million-tour sponsorship with FTX in the fall of 2021, per the Financial Times.
The terms included selling tickets as NFTs, although FTX marketing staff told the Times that “no one really liked the deal” and they thought it was “too expensive from the beginning.”
“In our discovery, Taylor Swift actually asked them: ‘Can you tell me that these are not unregistered securities?'” Moskowitz said.
A security is a tradeable asset that holds value, like a stock or a bond. All securities that are offered and sold in the US must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In a complaint against FTX executives last December, the SEC said the company’s cryptocurrency, FTT, is classified as a security because it was sold as an investment contract. It was not appropriately registered, however.
Moskowitz’s lawsuit, therefore, accuses the celebrities of promoting an unregistered security and seeks to recover damages for customers who lost money after FTX filed for bankruptcy last November.
“In order to induce confidence and to drive consumers to invest in what was ultimately a Ponzi scheme,” the suit claims that the defendants “made numerous misrepresentations and omissions.”
The crypto exchange imploded last November after concerns that the commingling of funds with its sister firm, Alameda, led to mass-customer withdrawals. It didn’t have enough money to fulfill that demand, partly due to lavish spending and a $65 billion line of credit, lawyers said.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas a month later and faces over 100 years in prison if found guilty of charges including securities fraud, money laundering, and bribery.
Representatives for Swift did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider. A spokesperson for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
Read the original article on Business Insider
- Wayne23 hours agoGive Taylor Swift her due. She is smart and if what the article says is true that her father worked for Merrill Lynch then she has a basic understanding about registered and unregistered securities. I wouldn’t go near crypto currency because i don’t understand it. As a mature adult she looked at…See moreReply2188Share
- SomeOne21 hours agoShe is smart. I am willing to bet she asked her father who gave her some questions to ask. The thing is all the celebrities have agents and lawyers. These agents and lawyers are not only looking at the contracts but supposed to be looking out for their clients best interests. Those folks should hav…See moreReply15Share
- David22 hours agoStill all too rare in the music business that any are sound on financial stuff as well as doing a tune or two.Reply402Share
- SomeOne21 hours agoShe is smart. I am willing to bet she asked her father who gave her some questions to ask. The thing is all the celebrities have agents and lawyers. These agents and lawyers are not only looking at the contracts but supposed to be looking out for their clients best interests. Those folks should hav…See moreReply15Share
- Virgil S22 hours agoMs. Swift is a very intelligent lady and has my deep respect. I have heard maybe a couple of her songs but her business sense I have admired.Reply513Share
- FRANK21 hours agoDue diligence is the minimum standard for entering into any contractual agreement. Greed causes people to make bad decisions, and sometimes that means incurring financial liability. Reply11Share
- H22 hours agoProps to Taylor Swift for being literate in the lesser known parts of the financial industry. But I still have no sympathy for people that invested in crypto just because it was endorsed by a celebrity. Now if any of these celebrities were a founding member or had some kind of leadership role, then…See moreReply10Share
- HarryK23 hours agoIf this is true, my respect for Taylor Swift just increased enormously. She’s a very precocious businessperson, but it appears it extends beyond successfully branding herself as the sympathetic victim. Good for her (words I never thought I’d write)!Reply354Share
- J23 hours agoWhen a deal seems too good to be true – run. She’s far smarter than the money grubbers who will lose a fortune in this lawsuit. Reply352Share
- Corey22 hours agoWow another class action lawsuit which means the lawyer(s) will get 25% of the judgement. So if they’re successful in getting 5 billion for us (the “victims”), the lawyers get 25% which is 1.25 billion dollars! Plus other lawyers fees or costs! That’s absurd and makes no sense. Then all of the vic…See more
source : https://news.yahoo.com/finance/news/taylor-swift-didnt-sign-100-112618986.html