Taylor Swift praised for rejecting P5.61-billion deal with now-bankrupt crypto company
The lawyer working on a lawsuit against celebrity promoters of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has singled out Taylor Swift as a good example.
Adam Moskowitz explained on the weekly crypto podcast The Scoop how Swift successfully dodged the bullet of a $5-billion (P280.62 billion) class action lawsuit.
Moskowitz called FTX a "pyramid scheme" and filed a class action lawsuit in Florida, together with lawyer David Boies. According to them, the yield-bearing accounts in FTX were actually unregistered securities and were sold illegally in the United States.
They also alleged that the celebrity endorsers participated in a “Ponzi scheme,” affecting “thousands, if not millions, of consumers nationwide.”
According to him, Swift was the only celebrity who did their due diligence as to whether they were breaking the law before promoting the sale of unregistered securities.
“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?’” Moskowitz said.
Although the singer-songwriter was reportedly in talks to enter a $100-million (P5.61 billion) deal with FTX, their partnership never became official.
The world's richest man Elon Musk has since praised Swift's decision-making. He tweeted: "I’m not surprised. Taylor is smart and her father is a well-regarded investment banker."
I’m not surprised. Taylor is smart and her father is a well-regarded investment banker.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2023
Moving forward, Moskowitz expressed his hope that celebrities and influencers alike will be more careful in the future about supporting crypto companies. These include the likes of accused celebrities, basketball star Shaquille O’Neal, football figure Tom Brady, and Seinfeld creator Larry David, among others.
“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," the lawyer said.
Forbes named Swift as the highest-paid female entertainer in 2022 as the only woman on the magazine's list of the World's 10 Highest-Paid Entertainers.