The former Bankman-Fried acquaintances, as well as defendants Caroline Ellison, and Gary Wang, along with Nishad Singh, already settled with investors.
Sam Bankman-Fried signed an agreement to settle in conjunction with FTX users who are willing to end their class action lawsuits against him in exchange for the benefit of pursuing the celebrity promoters of the ailing exchange.
The settlement, which was filed in the Miami Court on the Friday of this week, hasn’t yet been passed by an arbitrator. If it is approved, the settlement will release Bankman-Fried from all current and future civil liability arising from the failure of FTX.
Bankman-Fried’s final agreement will require him to provide the lawyers representing the plaintiff with details that include both evidence and documents he has in his possession in order to “aid in victim recovery” and aid in their legal battles against a variety of famous entrepreneurs and promoters of venture capital companies that have backed FTX. He has also committed to offering the lawyers financial details and other documents, including a full list of his personal assets as well as his company’s 2021 investment in the AI Anthropic, a startup Anthropic.
The settlement agreement in the works comes just days after Bankman-Fried was found guilty of fraud. He was sentenced to 25 years of prison for his part in the FTX’s collapse. Bankman-Fried appealed the sentence and was convicted.
Bankman-Fried’s former colleagues, friends, and defendants Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh, and Gary Wang, as well as FTX lawyer Dan Friedberg, have made similar agreements for settlement with the attorneys of the plaintiffs.
A number of lesser-known celebrities – such as finance YouTubers Andrei Jikh, Graham Stephan, Jaspreet Singh, Tom Nash, Brian Jung, and Jeremy Lefebvre – have also agreed to settle, contributing to a fund that is common to all of them, totaling $1.4 million to help fund the suit, alike to court documents.
Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who was compensated $500k in 2022 for endorsement of FTX subsidiary Blockfolio and Blockfolio, also agreed to settle against the defendants in the past year.
However, the majority of the major names who promote FTX, including the athletes Tom Brady, Steph Curry, Shaquille O’Neill, Naomi Osaka, and Shohei Otani, as well as supermodel Gisele Bundchen, are fighting the suit, as do more than a dozen national as well as international venture capital companies.
