Also named in the class action lawsuit over 'insidious' endorsements are Kevin Hart, Gwyneth Paltrow, Serena Williams, Jimmy Fallon, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd, Post Malone and Steph Curry.
- Dec 13, 2022
AceShowbiz - Justin Bieber and Madonna are among celebrities sued for "insidious" NFT endorsements over Bored Ape Yacht Club. Some famous faces were named in a class-action lawsuit filed against Yuga Labs, the company behind the NFT series Bored Ape Yacht Club, that alleges the firm engaged in a conspiracy with the A-listers to defraud potential investors.
The complaint was filed on Friday, December 9 in Los Angeles federal district court on behalf of investors who claim it failed to disclose the alleged involvement of celebrities in promoting and selling NFTs. Among the 37 defendants named for their alleged involvement in "promoting and selling a suite of digital assets," were Justin, Madonna, Kevin Hart, Gwyneth Paltrow, Serena Williams, Jimmy Fallon, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd, Post Malone and Stephen Curry (II).
Bored Ape comprises more than 10,000 NFTs depicting cartoon monkeys wearing various outfits. It's reportedly one of the most successful NFT art collections, valued at more than $1 billion.
Adonis Real and Adam Titcher, who have been investing in Yuga Labs NFTs since April 2021, filed the complaint. They alleged that the celebrities praised Yuga Labs and backed BAYC NFTs to the public by claiming to be customers themselves. "Defendants' promotional campaign was wildly successful, generating billions of dollars in sales and re-sales," the suit read.
"The manufactured celebrity endorsements and misleading promotions regarding the launch of an entire BAYC ecosystem (the so-called Otherside metaverse) were able to artificially increase the interest in and price of the BAYC NFTs during the Relevant Period, causing investors to purchase these losing investments at drastically inflated prices," it added.
The lawsuit further stated that the company's entire business model relies on using "insidious" marketing. It also noted that promotional activities from A-list celebrities are "highly compensated to increase demand of the Yuga securities by convincing potential retail investors that the price of these digital assets would appreciate."
Adonis and Adam also believe that Yuga Labs conspired with Hollywood talent manager Guy Oseary and the crypto-trading app MoonPay to get celebrities to promote BAYC NFTs while hiding that they were compensating those celebrities for promotion.
One of the examples in the complaint revealed that MoonPay posted a clip in November 2021 from Post Malone's music video for "One Right Now", where the rapper is seen buying a Bored Ape on the MoonPay app with musician The Weeknd. "This just happened," MoonPay captioned the clip.
"MoonPay's statement that 'this just happened' misleadingly suggested to investors that the promotion of MoonPay and the BAYC NFT collection within the so-called music video from Defendants Post and Tesfaye [The Weeknd] was something that occurred because of their genuine interest in the BAYC NFTs," according to the complaint.
Responding to the lawsuit, Yuga labs issued a statement that read, "In our view, these claims are opportunistic and parasitic." The company further stressed, "We strongly believe that they are without merit, and look forward to proving as much."
This isn't the first time celebrities have gotten in legal trouble over their involvement with cryptocurrency. In November, stars including Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen and Larry David were sued for pushing FTX through advertisements.
