By Jody Godoy
(Reuters) -FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been sued in U.S. court by investors alleging the company’s yield-bearing crypto accounts violated Florida law, according to court papers.
The proposed class action filed late Tuesday night in Miami alleges that FTX yield-bearing accounts were unregistered securities that were unlawfully sold in the U.S.
When the crypto exchange faltered on liquidity concerns, U.S. investors sustained $11 billion in damages, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit seeks damages from Bankman-Fried and a number of celebrities who allegedly helped promote FTX, including National Football League quarterback Tom Brady and tennis star Naomi Osaka.
Representatives for Brady, Osaka and Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
FTX filed for bankruptcy and is facing scrutiny from U.S. authorities amid reports that $10 billion in customer assets were shifted from FTX to Bankman-Fried’s trading company Alameda Research.
Reuters has reported that at least $1 billion in client funds are missing.
(Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru and Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Anna Driver)