- Plaintiff Edwin Garrison is claiming $1 billion in damages in a lawsuit against YouTube Influencers.
- Garrison claims the influencers actively marketed FTX without disclosing the nature of their paid endorsements to their followers.
- Meet Kevin, BitBoy Crypto, and LegalEagle voiced their opinions on the matter.
On March 15, Plaintiff Edwin Garrison filed a class action lawsuit claiming $1 billion in damages against YouTube Influencers who promoted FTX. The lawsuit seeks to hold influencers liable for FTX investors’ losses. Accordingly, outsider experts and some defendants voiced their opinions.
According to the court document, the class action complaint claims that YouTube influencers should be held accountable for promoting FTX. In detail, the plaintiff claims that the YouTubers provided financial advice and actively marketed FTX to their millions of followers without revealing the nature of their sponsorship and/or endorsement relationships to their audience.
Though FTX paid Defendants handsomely to push its brand and encourage their followers to invest, Defendants did not disclose the nature and scope of their sponsorships and/or endorsement deals, payments and compensation, nor conduct adequate (if any) due diligence.
The Defendants of the lawsuit are the mentioned YouTube Influencers. These include Kevin Paffrath, Graham Stephan, Andrei Jikh, Jaspreet Singh, Brian Jung, Jeremy Lefebvre, Tom Nash, Ben Armstrong, Erika Kullberg, and Creators Agency, LLC.
In response to the lawsuit, Kevin Paffrath (Meet Kevin) spoke with Internet Detective Coffeezilla. Paffrath denied the allegations that he was responsible for any losses from FTX. Furthermore, he mused that he was considering paying back some of the money, but only as a “charity.”
Speaking to other sources, Paffrath also said that the allegation of the non-disclosure of sponsorships/endorsements was false. Paffrath stated that he regularly discloses his sponsored videos, and all of his FTX videos have disclaimers stating they are.
Ben Armstrong (BitBoy Crypto), another one of the defendants, mocked the lawsuit on Twitter and threatened a countersuit. Armstrong claimed that he never had paid FTX sponsorships and had no connections or deals with the company.
Notably, famous YouTuber Lawyer LegalEagle pointed out that the lawsuit was a “copy and paste job” of a previous FTX-related claim. LegalEagle notes that the YouTube Influencer Lawsuit and another Influencer Lawsuit involving celebrities such as Tom Brady have the same lawyers, plaintiffs, and claims.
Meanwhile, most netizens seem to be out for blood. Many tweets quoting the lawsuit seek to find crypto influencers accountable for the FTX losses.
Disclaimer: The information presented in this article is for informational and educational purposes only. The article does not constitute financial advice or advice of any kind. Coin Edition is not responsible for any losses incurred as a result of the utilization of content, products, or services mentioned. Readers are advised to exercise caution before taking any action related to the company.
