{"id":153395,"date":"2022-12-10T02:09:15","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T02:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/bieber-madonna-among-dozens-of-celebs-named-in-lawsuit-alleging-yuga-labs-nft-scheme\/"},"modified":"2022-12-10T02:09:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T02:09:15","slug":"bieber-madonna-among-dozens-of-celebs-named-in-lawsuit-alleging-yuga-labs-nft-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/bieber-madonna-among-dozens-of-celebs-named-in-lawsuit-alleging-yuga-labs-nft-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Bieber, Madonna Among Dozens of Celebs Named in Lawsuit Alleging Yuga Labs NFT ‘Scheme’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A number of celebrities, including Justin Beiber, Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon and Madonna, among others, were named as plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit, alleging that Yuga Labs non-fungible tokens (NFT) collections were “misleadingly promoted” and resulted in financial damage to the defendants.<\/p>\n

The lawsuits, filed by John T. Jasnoch of Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP in US District Court for the Central District of California on Thursday, was brought forward on behalf of “investors” who purchased Yuga Labs NFTs including Bored Ape Yacht Club ( BAYC) or ApeCoin \u2013 the Ethereum-based governance and utility tokens used within the APE ecosystem \u2013 between April 2021 and the present. The two plaintiffs, Adam Titcher of California and Adonis Real of Florida, purchased Yuga Labs assets during that time.<\/p>\n

Titcher purchased Mutant Ape Yacht Club #1984 in August 2021 for 5.3 ETH (about $17,000 at the time) and minted Otherdeed for Otherside #16235 on OpenSea in April, while Adonis purchased an undisclosed amount of ApeCoin on Coinbase. According to the filing, both men purchased the assets “in reliance on the misleading promotions” from Yuga Labs and a number of celebrities, resulting in “investment losses.”<\/p>\n

The 95-page filing repeatedly refers to NFTs as securities, a question the US Securities and Exchange Commission has reportedly been investigating since March. In October, Bloomberg reported that the SEC was probing Yuga Labs to determine if sales of its digital assets violate federal law.<\/p>\n

The suit also alleges that Yuga Labs and Web3 investor Guy Oseary were involved in a “vast scheme” and used crypto payments platform MoonPay as a “front operation” to promote and sell digital assets. “The executives at Yuga and Oseary together devised a plan to leverage their vast network of A-list musicians, athletes, and celebrity clients and associates to misleadingly promote and sell the Yuga Financial Products,” the argument reads.<\/p>\n