Many well-known financial YouTubers, including Graham Stephan, Andrei Jikh, Jaspreet Singh, Brian Jung, Tom Nash, and many more, are being sued on a class-action basis for their promotion of the FTX, which was formerly the largest cryptocurrency exchange.
The claims were made in a class action complaint by individual investor Edwin Garrison on March 15 in the Miami Division of the Southern District of Florida. Garrison claimed about $1 billion from FTX influencers, particularly from financial YouTubers who promoted the FTX cryptocurrency scheme without disclosing payment.
Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit against financial influencers and promoters on social media and YouTube who aggressively pushed FTX and its yield-bearing accounts (“YBAs”) to their millions of followers while disseminating financial advice.
According to the lawsuit, Sam Bankman Fried, the agency’s founder, and FTX received aggressive advertising from close to eight YouTube stars. Although FTX paid the defendants handsomely to promote its brand and persuade their followers to make investments, the lawsuit claims that they “failed to disclose the nature and scope of their sponsorship and/or endorsement deals, payments and compensation, nor conduct adequate (if any) due diligence.”
The United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and several other US regulators brought several criminal fraud charges against the exchange’s CEO, Sam Bankman Fried, following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. These cases are still pending.
According to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) standards for social media influencers, creators who are paid to promote goods and services on YouTube and other platforms must make the appropriate disclosures.
The lawsuit also contends that the YouTubers deceived customers by creating a false image of them because they collaborated with FTX in a criminal conspiracy.
Compiled by Coinbold
