Investors in Sam Bankman-Fried’s bankrupt crypto firm FTX agreed to drop their claims against the convicted fraudster in exchange for his cooperation in lawsuits against other defendants — including celebrities Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen and Larry David who promoted the company before its stunning collapse.
According to the settlement — filed by a group of FTX investors in Miami federal court Friday — Bankman–Fried would be free of any civil liabilities from the multi-district litigation now and in the future, according to Bloomberg.
As part of the proposed settlement, which still needs approval from a judge, Bankman-Fried has agreed to hand over all nonprivileged documents detailing his assets and his investment in Google and Amazon-backed artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, an affidavit certifying his net worth as negative and documents about other defendants in the lawsuits, Bloomberg reported.
Bankman-Fried is also set to provide the group of FTX investors with any information he can about the accountants, lawyers and venture capital firms that worked with his disgraced exchange, which collapsed in November 2022 after Bankman-Fried swiped user funds to plug an $8 billion debt at sister company Alameda Research.
NFL legend Brady, his ex-wife Gisele Bundchen and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star David, along with Steph Curry, Shaquille O’Neill and Naomi Osaka had appeared in ads promoting FTX and are fighting lawsuits brought by shareholders.
More than a dozen venture capital firms based domestically and internationally are also fighting litigation surrounding their involvement with FTX.
The list of defendants at the center of a swath of lawsuits filed in the wake of FTX’s implosion accuses each endorser of promoting the exchange’s unregistered securities and enticing investors into a Ponzi scheme, according to Bloomberg.
Last month, Bankman-Fried, 32, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Bankman-Fried’s co-defendants and fellow FTX insiders, including his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who also worked as the chief of hedge fund company Alameda Research, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former company exec Nishad Singh, have also agreed to settle, per Bloomberg.
Ellison, Wang and Singh — who testified against Bankman=Fried — along with FTX lawyer Dan Friedberg have begun handing over information to help investors.
Social media celebrities who promoted FTX — including finance YouTubers Andrei Jikh, Graham Stephan, Jaspreet Singh, Tom Nash, Brian Jung and Jeremy Lefebvre — have also settled, agreeing to contribute to a common fund of $1.4 million to fund the plaintiffs’ lawsuit, according to court documents.
The settlements with promoters are valued at about $1.3 million, according to a filing in the case.
Adam Moskowitz, the lawyer for the group of FTX investors, did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The settlement agreement was signed off on by Bankman-Fried on April 11 — the same day he appealed his conviction and 25-year prison sentence.
Defense lawyer Marc Mukasey had announced plans for the appeal to the Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals during Bankman-Fried’s March 28 sentencing hearing.
Bankman-Fried was found guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in what federal prosecutors have called one of the biggest financial frauds in US history.
