Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo sued for promoting troubled crypto exchange Binance
Football star Cristiano Ronaldo has been sued for promoting Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, according to reports. The complainants claim that they suffered losses from his promotion of the crypto exchange, which plunged into crisis after the US opened a tax evasion probe against Binance.
A filing in a United States district court in Florida claimed Ronaldo “promoted, assisted in, and/or actively participated in the offer and sale of unregistered securities in coordination with Binance”, according to a crypto website, Coin Telegraph.
Binance entered a multi-year partnership with Ronaldo in 2022 to promote a series of his own nonfungible tokens (NFTs), with at least three of the soccer star’s collections tied to the exchange, the report said.
The complainants claim that users who signed up for Ronaldo’s NFTs were more likely to use the exchange for other purposes, such as investing in unregistered securities.
The suit alleges that the footballer knew or should have known about Binance selling unregistered crypto securities as he has investment experience and vast resources to obtain outside advisers.
Meanwhile, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has pleaded guilty to willfully causing the global cryptocurrency exchange to fail to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.
The US authorities said Binance broke anti-money laundering and sanctions laws and failed to report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions with organizations the US described as terrorist groups including Hamas, al Qaeda, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Reuters reported on November 24.
The company as part of a plea deal agreed to pay more than $4.3 billion. Zhao has agreed to pay a $150 million penalty to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and prosecutors in a Wednesday filing said he faces up to 18 months in prison.
A US federal judge said on Monday that Zhao cannot leave the United States for the time being. Zhao will be required to stay in the US until the Seattle court considers whether he should remain through his sentencing hearing in February, or if he should be allowed to return to USE, where he is a citizen.
(With inputs from Reuters)
