The bankrupt FTX spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for sports-celebrities endorsements with paying as high as $750k per deal.
In a latest court filing, the failed exchange disclosed that it paid nearly $750k to former basketball player Shaquille O’Neal (Shaq), over $300k to Tennis star Naomi Osaka, $200k to American football player Trevor Lawrence and $270k to former baseball player David Oritz.
Alongside different sports personalities, FTX also paid nearly $420k to NBA team Golden State Warriors. The filing also shows payments to another NBA team Miami Heat.
The legal and financial team of the bankrupt exchange shared the filing to the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in order to find out if any legal stance allows reversing any of these payments paid out for marketing.
FTX claims that the list may not reflect all exhaustive deposits and repayments as it is working on getting all outstanding transactions made in prior years.
The company targeted the sports industry majorly for marketing their crypto exchange platform, as such it paying over $6 million to advertise at the Super Bowl in February, 2022.
While the FTX failed to serve customers, several celebrities are facing class-action lawsuits from users for promoting the exchange. The lawsuit, filed in November 2022, includes names of promoter celebrities such as Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Stephan Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, Naomi Osaka, Kevin O’Leary and others.
Also read: US Court Orders South African Firm To Pay $1.7B in Reimbursement
