Taylor Swift narrowly escaped being embroiled in a federal lawsuit by declining a $100 million crypto deal with Sam Bankman-Fried's now-defunct FTX, as discovered by RadarOnline.com.
Attorney Adam Moskowitz shared this revelation during a recent podcast. Moskowitz has been managing the $5 billion lawsuit aiming to recoup funds paid by FTX to celebrities who endorsed the company.
The lawsuit alleges that numerous celebrities and athletes promoted the sale of unregistered securities, which is illegal in the United States. Moskowitz noted that none of the celebrities who supported FTX investigated or inquired about whether they were promoting unregistered securities before appearing in TV commercials or digital ads.
The suit seeks repayment of millions of dollars from celebrities, including Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, NBA star Steph Curry, Shaquille O'Neal, Larry David, Naomi Osaka, and others. Brady, Bundchen, and David all featured prominently in FTX's ads.
According to Moskowitz, the one celebrity who thoroughly researched FTX was Swift. “The one person I found that did that was Taylor Swift. In our discovery, Taylor Swift actually asked them, 'Can you tell me that these are not unregistered securities?’” he explained.
Although Swift came close to finalizing a $100 million deal with FTX, the agreement was never completed. Another source claimed that Swift was not pursuing an endorsement deal but was exploring potential NFT deals with FTX.
Moskowitz further expressed his disbelief, saying, “I mean, why would you possibly promote cryptocurrency if it may be an unregistered security? That's just baffling to me. There's a long list of influencers that promoted this. But you know, you’ve got to be realistic. I mean, I can't go after 1,000 right now. So you go after the largest ones.”
RadarOnline.com previously reported that FTX founder Bankman-Fried was arrested in December on charges of wire fraud and securities fraud.