Snoop Dogg, Post Malone and several other celebrities have been named as co-conspirators in a lawsuit involving the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT.
In accordance Complexthe class action was filed in federal court in Los Angeles against Yuga Labs Inc, the cryptocurrency company behind the popular NFTs.
The plaintiffs who started the case, Adam Titcher and Adonis Real, allege that several celebrities, including actors, musicians, athletes and more, were paid by the books to “misleadingly promote” and inflate the value of Yuga Financial Products.
It is alleged in the complaint Yuga recruited entertainment chief Guy Oseary to come up with a plan to “leverage their vast network” to inflate the company’s value. Post, Snoop, The Weeknd, Kevin Hart, Justin Bieber and others are accused of promoting Bored Ape and other Yuga offerings through MoonPay, a financial technology company believed to be associated with Oseary’s Sound Ventures.
“Defendant’s advertising campaign was very successful, generating billions of dollars in sales and resales,” the lawsuit states. “The manufactured celebrity endorsements and misleading campaigns regarding the launch of an entire BAYC ecosystem (the so-called Otherside metaverse) were able to artificially increase interest in and the price of the BAYC NFTs during the relevant period, prompting investors to purchase them losing investments at drastically high prices.”
There are a total of 37 defendants listed in the complaint, including Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, NFT artist Beeple, as well as other celebrities such as Future, DJ Khaled, Diplo, Jimmy Fallon, Madonna and more.
Rick Ross asks Bored Ape NFTs while laughing at richest rapper fan questions
A Yuga Labs representative issued a statement through Fox News in response to the lawsuit, saying, “In our view, these claims are opportunistic and parasitic. We strongly believe they are without merit, and look forward to proving it.”
Snoop Dogg jumped into the NFT space with Bored Ape earlier this year, starting with the music video for his Eminem collaboration “From The D 2 The LBC.” Post Malone joined the fray with a video shared on Instagram via Moonpay. In the video, Post is on his phone buying two Bored Ape NFTs that he says his friends are going to “freak out” because they love all things non-fungible tokens.
Posty bought Bored Ape #961 and #9039 for a total of 160 ETH (Ethereum), equivalent to $734,401.60.
