October 6th 2023.
Author Michael Lewis recently made an explosive allegation on CBS' 60 Minutes that disgraced FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried had paid NBA All-Star Steph Curry $35 million for 60 hours of promotion. Lewis, who is promoting his new book Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, claims to have met with Bankman-Fried over 100 times and seen internal FTX documents that show how much celebrities were paid for partnering with the company.
In a now-deleted post, FTX welcomed Curry as a Global Ambassador with an equity stake in 2021. The post read, "Welcome to the FTX Team, NBA Superstar Stephen Curry! We’re excited to announce he’s become FTX Global Ambassador and a shareholder. Though, who better to announce it than @StephenCurry30 himself."
However, Curry is now part of a class-action lawsuit against the failed company and its supporters. This lawsuit claims that the celebrity endorsements for FTX were “fraudulent”, and that other athletes like Shaquille O’Neal and Naomi Osaka had also received payments from FTX for their endorsements. Court filings report that Osaka allegedly pocketed over $300K, and O’Neal reportedly received close to $750K. To add insult to injury, Shaq was even served the papers during the playoff game between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat.
The trial involving Bankman-Fried is set to begin on October 10, the same day that Lewis' book Going Infinite is available to the public. It will be interesting to see how the outcome of the trial will affect Lewis's book. No matter what, one thing is clear - the rise and fall of FTX has been quite the roller coaster ride.
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