Sam Bankman-Fried Agrees to Help FTX Investors Go After Celeb Promoters

The filing of the settlement agreement in a Miami court last Friday is still pending judicial approval. Once approved, this settlement will free Bankman-Fried from all existing and future civil lawsuits related to the failure of FTX.

Bankman-Fried has promised to cooperate with the lawyers representing the plaintiffs by supplying them with necessary information for their case against celebrity promoters and venture capital firms associated with FTX. This includes testimonies, documents, financial information, and his firm’s investment records in Anthropic from 2021. In simpler terms, Bankman-Fried will help the lawyers by providing evidence and financial details to strengthen their lawsuits.

After being found guilty of fraud and given a 25-year prison term for his involvement in the collapse of FTX, Bankman-Fried is now set to finalize a settlement agreement. However, he has filed an appeal against both his conviction and sentence.

The friends, colleagues, and former co-defendants of Bankman-Fried, including Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh, Gary Wang, and FTX’s legal representative Dan Friedberg, have reached identical settlement deals with the lawyers representing the plaintiffs.

A number of smaller celebrity influencers, such as finance YouTubers Andrei Jikh, Graham Stephan, Jaspreet Singh, Tom Nash, Brian Jung, and Jeremy Lefebvre, have collectively contributed $1.4 million towards a joint fund to support the ongoing lawsuit, as stated in court records.

Last year, Trevor Lawrence, the quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars, reached a settlement while being paid $500,000 to endorse Blockfolio, a subsidiary of FTX, in 2022.

The majority of prominent FTX promoters, including athletes Tom Brady, Steph Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, Naomi Osaka, Shohei Otani, and supermodel Gisele Bundchen, along with more than a dozen domestic and international venture capital firms, are opposing the legal action.