The ongoing class action litigation against famous personalities accused of promoting the now-defunct FTX crypto exchange has just been bolstered with the cooperation of a former executive determined to make the case against them. The May 11th proposed amendment to the already existing complaint being presented in the Florida District Court was submitted by the class action lawyers and included declarations from Daniel Friedberg, who served as the Chief Regulatory Officer (CRO) and Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) of FTX's United States arm.

Friedberg, in his sworn testimony, established that the person responsible for the crypto exchange's promotional activities with celebrity endorsers was, in fact, Avinash Dabir, FTX US’ Vice President of Business Development. Dabir, based in Miami since early 2021, was in charge of acquiring the endorsements of some of the defendants in the case, including Shaquille O’Neal, comedian Larry David, retired NFL player Tom Brady and Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX.

This evidence seemed to refute the argument made by these defendants that the Florida court had no jurisdiction and no connections between the state of Florida and the claims existed. The class action lawyers have now edited the lawsuit to take into account the evidence that Friedberg presented, but the final decision as to its efficacy will lie in the hands of the court.

The first complaint of the lawsuit was lodged in the middle of November 2020 when the exchange collapsed. Some of the notable individuals accused of promoting FTX included Gisele Bündchen, Tom Brady's then-wife and model, entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary, and NBA player Steph Curry and his team, the Golden State Warriors.

However, Friedberg ended up being a defendant in the amended complaint filed on December 16th, and is currently offering assistance in the ongoing litigation against his former exchange. Investigators from the New York District Attorney, Justice Department, FBI, along with the Securities and Exchange Commission, were given important information on FTX by Friedberg a few weeks after the crypto exchange folded.

Evidently, Friedberg is determined to be part of this scandal's solution, and not its problem, unlike the famous personalities that got linked to FTX's failure.



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