Who can forget that pathetic interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon earlier this year, in which hosts Fallon and Paris Hilton gushed about their Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs?
Well, this Tonight Show segment is now part of a class action lawsuit against dozens of celebrities who, along with its parent company Yuga Labs, have been promoting Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.
According to the two plaintiffs who filed the complaint, Yuga Labs “schemed” with celebrities such as Fallon, Hilton, Madonna, Kevin Hart, Justin Bieber, and Snoop Dogg to artificially inflate the price of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs by cheating their fans who have invested.
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The lawsuit was filed December 8 in federal district court in Los Angeles. The plaintiffs are seeking at least $5 million for themselves and others affected.
Other celebrities named in the lawsuit include Gwyneth Paltrow, Post Malone, Stephen Curry and Serena Williams.
There are other notable names in the lawsuit as well, such as William’s husband, Reddit founder Alex Ohanian, and Amy Wu, an investor who recently exited FTX, the failed cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.
One particularly prominent name being sued is Guy Oseary, talent manager for Madonna, U2 and other musical superstars. Oseary is a partner at Yuga Labs and also manages a number of celebrities involved in promoting Bored Ape NFTs. Additionally, Oseary is an investor in Moonpay, a crypto payments platform that has basically acted as a concierge service for many celebrities’ NFT transactions.
And that multi-tiered relationship that strings everything together is at the heart of the complaint. Plaintiffs say Oseary recruited celebrities he was in relationships with and Yuga Labs paid them to endorse Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs through Moonpay. Then these celebrities would go and promote Bored Ape NFTs to their fans without disclosing the arrangement. For example, that very segment of The Tonight Show, in which Fallon and Hilton show off their Bored Ape NFTs and talk about why they bought them, is specifically described in the lawsuit.
“In our view, these claims are opportunistic and parasitic,” a Yuga Labs spokesman said in a statement made available to a number of outlets. “We firmly believe they are unfounded and look forward to proving it.”
Critics have previously pointed to the close relationship between celebrities, their talent agents, and those agents’ investments in crypto companies, which then nurture their talent.
This latest crypto class-action lawsuit follows one filed last month against Larry David, Tom Brady, and Giselle Bundchen for their promotion of FTX.
As for Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders, their non-fungible token investment is currently in steep decline. The reserve price for a Bored Ape NFT peaked at around $430,000 in April. Currently, the minimum price for a Bored Ape NFT is around $86,000.
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