Former NFL star Tom Brady, who previously served as an ambassador for the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, reportedly lost millions of dollars from his association with it.
Brady, who appeared at the company’s conference in the Bahamas and in TV commercials promoting the exchange, was paid $30 million almost entirely in FTX stock as compensation for endorsing the exchange, New York Times reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.
The quarterback’s ex-wife and supermodel Gisele Bündchen, received $18 million in FTX stock, the report added. The former power couple was also given some amount of Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) to trade on FTX, the report said. The tokens disappeared following the exchange’s bankruptcy.
Following FTX’s bankruptcy, customers have sought compensation from Brady and Bündchen as the two endorsed the exchange. The duo is also mandated by the terms of the agreement with FTX that they have to pay taxes on at least some of their now worthless FTX stock.
Brady and Bündchen weren’t the only celebrities that were named in the lawsuit.
The FTX lawsuit included Naomi Osaka, Larry David, Shaquille O’Neill, and Steph Curry that filed in a Miami-Dade courtroom.
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is now facing federal fraud charges. Brady, who announced his retirement from the NFL in February, has not commented on FTX’s fiasco.
Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas to the U.S. for lying to investors and committing fraud after the cryptocurrency exchange collapsed.
After the collapse of the exchange, John J. Ray III took over as CEO for the failed exchange as there were talks in bringing the company back to life.
FTX had their licensing naming rights with Miami-Dade County for the rename of then-American Airlines Arena, home of the NBA’s Miami Heat.
“People are going to be waiting on the sidelines for a very long time, and only heaven knows what it’s going to be worth,” said Anthony Sabino, a law professor at St. John’s University. “It does not look good at all.”
Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are probing the bankrupt exchange as they are going through the Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“I expect the FTX bankruptcy to take a decade or more for the process to sort out what assets remain and who owns them,” said Joshua Peck, a crypto expert on securities and risk in blockchain.
It was reported that Alameda Research was independent of FTX, but then was reported that Bankman-Fried hishandled the balance sheet to cover debts.
Produced in association with Benzinga
Edited by Alberto Arellano and Joseph Hammond
