The latest sports connection to the FTX collapse comes from one customer who is suing the Golden State Warriors.
Elliott Lam, a Canadian citizen who lives in Hong Kong, filed a class-action lawsuit on Monday in San Francisco federal court for “thousands, if not millions” of people outside the United States that trade cryptocurrency on FTX, per Reuters.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, who headed Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research trading firm, are also named as defendants in the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, Lam claims that FTX was “falsely representing” a “viable and safe way to invest in crypto.” Lam is seeking damages for the $750,000 worth of losses in his FTX account as well as other damages to customers outside the United States.
Why the Warriors? The 2022 NBA champions had FTX as their official cryptocurrency platform, one of the first crypto partnerships in sports.
Golden State was also involved in a lawsuit in Miami on Nov. 16 by United States-based FTX customers who seek damages from FTX endorsers, including Warriors’ All-Star point guard Stephen Curry, NFL quarterback Tom Brady, comedian Larry David and women’s tennis star Naomi Osaka.
In the NBA, the Miami Heat dropped FTX from its arena name and is now seeking a new partner to fill that void. It came on Nov. 11, the same day FTX filed for Chapter 11.
FTX noted in a court filing on Saturday that it owes more than $3 billion to its 50 largest creditors. The top 10 creditors are owed $1.45 billion.
At one point, FTX was the third-largest crypto exchange with a $32 billion valuation prior to a liquidity crisis that forced the company into Chapter 11. One million customers are estimated to be facing losses, which are expected to be in the billions.