Justin Bieber and The Weeknd Sued – Billboard
Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd and dozens of other celebrities face a new class action lawsuit alleging they were secretly paid to “misleadingly” promote NFTs like Bored Ape Yacht Club, leaving investors with “staggering losses” .
In a complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, attorneys for a pair of consumers alleged that Bored Ape parent company Yuga Labs Inc. carried out a “comprehensive scheme” in which they “discreetly” paid “highly influential celebrities” to pump up the value of NFTs -enes (non-fungible tokens).
“The defendants’ advertising campaign was very successful, generating billions of dollars in sales and resales,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote. “The manufactured celebrity endorsements and deceptive promotions … were able to artificially increase interest in and price of the BAYC NFTs … causing investors to purchase these losing investments at drastically inflated prices.”
Although this “conspiracy” ultimately “raked in millions” for the various defendants, the lawsuit said investors in Bored Ape and other NFTs were “left with staggering losses.”
Yuga Labs and representatives for Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd also did not return requests for comment.
The case is the latest celebrity endorsement for cryptocurrencies and NFTs, which surged in value during 2020 and 2021 but have been bruised as the economy has slowed in 2022.
In January, investors sued Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather and others earlier this year for promoting the EthereumMax cryptocurrency. And last month, after the spectacular collapse of the crypto company FTX, investors filed a similar case against Larry David, Tom Brady, Giselle Bündchen, Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry.
But such cases can face legal headwinds. The lawsuit against Kardashian and others over EthereumMax was dismissed by a federal judge on Wednesday, who said the conduct raises “legitimate concerns” about online “snake oil” but that investors must still be expected to “act reasonably before basing their bets on the zeitgeist of the moment .”
In particular, that case was brought by the same lawyer, John T. Jasnoch of Scott + Scott, which filed the new suit Thursday against Yuga Labs. The new case was raised Adonis Real and Adam Titchertwo consumers who say they bought NFTs, on behalf of potentially thousands of other buyers.
The new lawsuit concerns an alleged partnership between Yuga and the music industry Guy Oseary — longtime manager of Madonna, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others — where they aimed to “leverage their vast network of A-list musicians, athletes and celebrity clients” to promote Bored Ape and other offerings.
The plaintiffs allege this was accomplished via MoonPay, a crypto platform that Oseary’s venture capital firm had allegedly invested in. Since the celebrity defendants were also allegedly investors in MoonPay, the lawsuit alleges Yuga and Oseary used it “as a covert way to compensate the promoter defendants for their promotions of BAYC NFTs without disclosing it to unsuspecting investors”.
Oseary did not immediately return requests for comment on the allegations.
Read the full complaint here:
