A federal lawsuit filed Thursday accuses a huge number of A-list celebrities of fraud for promoting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
The class action complaint, filed in the Central District of California, demands a jury trial for damages the plaintiffs believe were caused by these celebrities. Named defendants include Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, Justin Bieber, Kevin Hart, Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon and others, all of whom promoted NFTs and other digital “assets” as if they ever had any value beyond what existed inside their own heads. The suit claims the celebrities misled their digital followers into purchasing NFTs and other securities originally issued by Yuga Labs.
Plaintiffs allege that Yuga Labs developed an “insidious marketing and promotion” campaign to sell the tokens that depended on celebrities and others being paid handsomely for their endorsements without that compensation being disclosed. This campaign “increase[d] the demand of the Yuga securities by convincing potential retail investors that the prince of these digital assets would appreciate,” the complaint reads.
FTX keeps looking more and more sus https://t.co/7AVndmOlnq
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 16, 2022
Jimmy Fallon’s production company, Electric Hot Dog, and Universal Television were also named in the suit. In 2021, Fallon promoted Yuga products and crypto firm Moonpay on an episode of “The Tonight Show” but did not disclosure his financial stake in Moonpay.
Fallon and others were allegedly recruited into the scheme by talent manager Gary Oseary, whose venture capital firm was an early investor in Moonpay. (RELATED: Globalist Org Run By Renowned Bond Villian Cosplayer Scrubs FTX Page From Its Website)
“In our view, these claims are opportunistic and parasitic,” a Yuga Labs spokesperson said in a statement, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “We strongly believe that they are without merit, and look forward to proving as much.”
The people in the suit are not the first celebrities to face legal trouble for promoting crypto and NFTs. In October, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged billionaire socialite Kim Kardashian for failing to disclose a payment she received to promote a cryptocurrency asset security offered by EthereumMax.