Three celebrity endorsers of the failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange – including NFL quarterback Trevor Lawrence – have agreed to settle claims they helped dupe investors who lost billions in the meltdown of Sam Bankman-Fried’s digital-asset empire.
The proposed accords with Lawrence, a star for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and YouTube influencers Kevin Paffrath and Tom Nash were cited in a Friday court filing. The settlement terms weren’t disclosed.
The settlements come as Bankman-Fried is scheduled to go on trial next month in Manhattan federal court on criminal charges that he orchestrated a multibillion-dollar fraud before the exchange collapsed last November.
Other celebrities who endorsed FTX, including Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Shaquille O’Neal and Larry David, have also been sued. The class-action suits against the celebrities have been consolidated before a federal judge in Miami, along with separate complaints against venture capital and private equity firms including Sequoia Capital and Thoma Bravo that invested in FTX, claiming they enabled Bankman-Fried.
