Three celebrity endorsers of failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange, including NFL quarterback Trevor Lawrence, have agreed to plead guilty to charges that they helped defraud investors who lost billions in the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s digital asset empire. Reach a settlement.
A court filing Friday cited the proposed agreement with Jacksonville Jaguars star Lawrence and YouTube influencers Kevin Pavrat and Tom Nash. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
The settlement comes as Bankman-Fried is scheduled to go on trial in Manhattan federal court next month on charges that he orchestrated a multibillion-dollar fraud before the exchange collapsed last November.
Other celebrities who have supported FTX, including Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Shaquille O’Neal and Larry David, have also been targeted. to prosecution. The class-action lawsuit against the celebrities has been consolidated before a federal judge in Miami, along with separate complaints against venture capital and private equity firms that invested in FTX, including Sequoia Capital and Thoma Bravo, which invested in FTX, alleging that they acted as Bankman- Fried provided support.
