Quick take:
- The complaint states that celebrity promotions of Bored Ape NFTs caused investors to purchase the “losing investments at drastically inflated prices.”
- The plaintiffs also accused Yuga Labs of creating ApeCoin “out of thin air.”
- The complaint states that Yuga Labs founders disguised their control of Yuga Labs to avoid scrutiny.
Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, The Weekend, and dozens of celebrities, along with the founders of Yuga Labs, MoonPay and ApeDAO council members, are facing a class action lawsuit for promoting Bored Ape NFTs.
Attorneys for two consumers named Adonis Real and Adam Titcher filed a complaint in Los Angeles federal court on Thursday, claiming that celebrity promotions of Bored Ape NFTs caused investors to purchase the “losing investments at drastically inflated prices.”
Celebrities named in the complaint include Paris Hilton, Madonna, and Jimmy Fallon, alongside Industry players including MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and talent manager Guy Oseary.
The complaint claims that the celebrities were involved in a “vast scheme” between Yuga Labs, Guy Oseary, and MoonPay who “devised a plan to leverage their vast network of A-list musicians, athletes, and celebrity clients and associates to misleadingly promote and sell Yuga Labs products.”
The plaintiffs accused Yuga Labs, MoonPay and Oseary of using their celebrity connections and covertly compensating the celebrities for promoting Bored Ape NFTs without disclosing it to the public. Many of the celebrities named in the class action complaint invested in MoonPay.
The complaint also states that celebrity promotions of Bored Ape NFTs caused investors to purchase the “losing investments at drastically inflated prices.” Justin Bieber, who is named in the complaint, appears to also have suffered a loss as his Bored Ape #3001 which he paid $1.3 million for is now worth $69,000 following the FTX collapse.
MoonPay’s concierge service, which has been helping celebrities purchase blue-chip NFTs, assisted Madonna in purchasing a Bored Ape NFT for 180 ETH in March. Previous clients of MoonPay’s concierge service include Jimmy Fallon, Post Malone, Snoop Dogg. Fallon mentioned MoonPay on his show twice, one of which was during a segment with Paris Hilton, but denied he was commercially affiliated with the company.
The plaintiffs also accused Yuga Labs of creating ApeCoin “out of thin air” and that the Ape DAO board “sought to obscure their sales of their own massive ApeCoin allocations directly to retail purchasers.”
The complaint alleged that the conspiracy “raked in millions” for Yuga Labs, MoonPay and the celebrities named while “investors were left with staggering losses.”
Lawsuits against celebrity endorsements in the Web3 space have made headlines this year. Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather and others were sued in January for promoting EthereumMax, but the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge on Wednesday. The suit was filed by John T. Jasnoch of Scott + Scott Attorneys, who filed this new case against Yuga Labs.
After the stunning collapse of FTX, investors also filed a lawsuit against Larry David, Tom Brady, Giselle Bündchen, Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry.
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