Celebrities named in lawsuit against Bored Ape Yacht Club alleging fraud 'scheme'
Justin Bieber, Madonna and Snoop Dogg are among a number of A-list celebrities named in a lawsuit accusing the parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club of being involved in a conspiracy to defraud potential investors.
For those of you who may not be well versed in the world of NFTs, Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 10,000 unique Bored Ape non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which can be purchased online.
The celebrities named in the lawsuit have been accused of promoting or endorsing the Yacht Club on a variety of platforms, in turn causing the value of NFTs to increase to 'artificially inflated and distorted prices'.
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Plaintiffs Adonis Real and Adam Titcher have listed Kevin Hart, Gwyneth Paltrow, Serena Williams, Jimmy Fallon, Paris Hilton, The Weeknd, Post Malone, Steph Curry and Universal Television as defendants Yuga Labs, the parent company of the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
The complaint, which was filed on 8 December in federal district court in Los Angeles, seeks damages of at least $5 million (£4.07m) on behalf of the plaintiffs and 'all others similarly situated'.
Yuga Labs and the named celebrities have been accused of engaging in misleading promotions which failed to disclose alleged financial compensation during the period of 24 April 2021 to present.
The plaintiffs have also claimed the 'scheme' involved cryptocurrency company MoonPay, which is alleged to have facilitated transfers of ownership to the celebrities named in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit reveals that Titcher purchased a Mutant Ape and an Otherdeed for the Bored Ape metaverse Otherside, while Real purchased ApeCoin tokens.
It reads: "The truth is that the Company’s entire business model relies on using insidious marketing and promotional activities from A-list celebrities that are highly compensated (without disclosing such), to increase demand of the Yuga securities by convincing potential retail investors that the price of these digital assets would appreciate."
One example of promotion done by celebrities was an FTX teaser commercial featuring Steph Curry, which showed the basketball player carving an ice sculpture of a Bored Ape.
A tagline in the ad read: “When learning about crypto, you’ll be anything but bored.”
In response to the accusations, a spokesperson for Yuga Labs spokesperson commented: “In our view, these claims are opportunistic and parasitic. We strongly believe that they are without merit, and look forward to proving as much.”
UNILAD has reached out to Yuga Labs for further comment.
Topics: Celebrity, Technology, Money, Justin Bieber, Madonna
Emily Brown