Taylor Swift, crypto skeptic, avoided FTX lawsuit by asking 1 basic question
Taylor Swift may have a reputation for diving, naively, head first into love, but you can’t say the woman doesn’t maintain a healthy skepticism when asked to cooperate with (now known to be) fraudulent business ventures. In December, reports broke that Swift had been in talks with FTX to negotiate a $100 million partnership deal earlier that spring. But after doing her due diligence by simply (and smartly) asking if the crypto exchange was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, she must have decided the partnership wasn’t worth it and pulled out of negotiations.
“In our discovery, Taylor Swift actually asked them, ‘Can you tell me these are not unregistered securities?'” attorney Adam Moskowitz told The Scoop podcast. FTX couldn’t tell her because…they weren’t registered. I am anxiously awaiting her opening Houston performance this weekend by announcing (in Elle Woods voice), “Yeah, I avoided a crypto scam. What, like that’s hard?”
Moskowitz is one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit against FTX founder and fallen prodigy Sam Bankman-Fried, and other celebrities such as, following law firm’s website, “are responsible for approximately $11 billion in losses for American consumers.” The other celebrities who notably did not bother to ask if they associated themselves with unregistered securities include Shaquille O’Neal, Larry David and Tom Brady. Moskowitz said on the podcast, “You promote an unregistered security for financial gain, you are liable for all liquidated damages.” Meaningful.
Celebrities who danced the forbidden dance with crypto during the height of the craze last year are starting to see consequences. A number of famous people such as Lindsay Lohan and Soulja Boy was fined by the SEC in March for not disclosing paid crypto partnerships. Sure, not every celebrity who jumped on the now-empty hot air balloon is in legal trouble, but enough shady dealings took place in the crypto arena to help us see it for what it was: a hyped-up fad that was especially trendy in Miami. But, like rubbing yourself in sunscreen, time has revealed the cancer-causing sunspots.
Good on Taylor for asking a single question before risking her entire business reputation for a guy who allegedly referred to himself as “a fan of Tay-Tay” and has since fallen far from public grace. Like Swift prevails in her Vogue “73 Questions” interview from 2016, the key to being a successful singer is to “get a good lawyer.” It seems like hers is definitely earning her keep.
