According to a lawyer handling a class-action lawsuit against several FTX promoters, Taylor Swift declined a $100 million sponsorship deal with the crypto exchange because she was the only celebrity to question its legality.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are seeking over $5 billion from FTX’s celebrity endorsers, including Shaquille O’Neal, Tom Brady, and Larry David, alleging that they did not do their due diligence to check if FTX was breaking the law.
Moskowitz’s lawsuit 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.
Swift, whose father used to work for Merrill Lynch, asked if the NFTs being sold as tickets were unregistered securities. The lawsuit claims that FTX executives made numerous misrepresentations and omissions to induce confidence and drive consumers to invest in what was ultimately a Ponzi scheme.
FTX imploded last November after concerns that the commingling of funds with its sister firm, Alameda, led to mass-customer withdrawals.