Investors claim the deal led to total losses of around $4.2 billion when the company collapsed during the crypto contagions of 2022.
The lawsuit alleges the NBA was “grossly negligent” in agreeing to a marketing deal between Voyager and Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks.
Moreover, several NBA teams had deals to promote crypto companies like Voyager and FTX, which also failed.
Unregistered Securities Promotion
This latest lawsuit was filed in Miami on Feb. 6, claiming that the NBA promoted Voyager’s “unregistered securities,” making it liable for damages.
“The NBA carefully and deliberately decided to embrace the risks associated with cryptocurrency exchanges such as Voyager, FTX, and Coinbase, and go all in,”
“This decision, fraught with risk, involved promoting and selling billions of dollars in unregistered and illegal securities to the public by leveraging the global reputation and trust in the NBA brand,” it added.
Moreover, investors had previously sued Cuban for promoting the exchange, which they called “an unregulated and unsustainable fraud,” according to Bloomberg.
Voyager’s law firm, McCarter & English, was also sued for allegedly producing “fraudulent legal opinions” backing Voyager; however, the latter denies the allegations and intends to defend itself.
There are eight claims in total in the suit. It alleges the NBA deal allowed Voyager to leverage the league’s reputation to promote and sell illegal crypto securities.
It also accuses Voyager’s lawyers of lending credibility by saying the firm’s VGX token was not an unregistered security. However, crypto assets have yet to be officially classified in the United States.
The plaintiffs also aim to recover damages from the proceeds of Cuban’s recent $3.5 billion sale of the Mavericks.
Additionally,
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Author: Martin Young