A Florida district court in the United States slammed a cryptocurrency influencer, Tom Nash, with a class-action lawsuit on May 2 regarding the FTX company collapse.
The lawsuit was served via a tweet after a US court permitted the unconventional method due to the difficulty in reaching him through other channels.
@iamtomnash, per the authorization of the Court presiding over the pending class action against you in the Southern District of Florida, you have been served: https://t.co/28YJQ2sKY5
— The Moskowitz Law Firm (@moskowitzesq) May 2, 2023
It was gathered that Tom Nash is a cryptocurrency YouTuber, who is among ten defendants named in the lawsuit that alleges they promoted the now-defunct FTX cryptocurrency exchange without revealing their compensation.
The Moskowitz Law Firm, representing an FTX investor, received authorization from a Florida district court judge on May 2 to serve the legal notice to Nash through Twitter.
Nash, who is believed to reside in Georgia, was the last defendant to be served in the lawsuit. On the same day, the law firm tweeted the notice to Nash, mentioning his Twitter handle in the post and thus providing him with legal notice of the lawsuit.
However, the court filing detailed the process of serving Nash via Twitter, which involved the law firm sharing a legal notice URL through its official Twitter account and tagging Nash’s handle.
In addition, Moskowitz was required to send the URL to Nash’s publicly known email address. The filing argued that Nash’s extensive internet usage and his reliance on electronic means, including Twitter, made this a reliable method of contacting him.
The court acknowledged Nash’s use of a publicly disclosed email address, as well as the fact that previous attempts to contact him through this email did not result in any bounce-backs, indicating that the address was valid and operational.
The district court was permitted to order an alternative method of service for foreign defendants, as long as it didn’t violate international agreements and was likely to effectively notify the defendant.
It should be noted that both Georgia and the US are parties to The Hague Convention, an international treaty that standardizes the process of serving legal documents between countries that are signatories.
Crypto Influencer Armstrong’s Affront to Lawsuit
While the veteran crypto influencer Ben Armstrong (known as BitBoy Crypto) was part of those that were issued a lawsuit as regards FTX, he has shown repeated affront to the court.
Armstrong failed to appear in court on April 20 to address accusations of harassment toward the plaintiffs’ counsel. Instead, he posted photos of himself vacationing on a beach in the Bahamas and mocked the court order on Twitter.
I am supposed to be in court today.
I’m not. Why?
Because I don’t give AF
RECKLESSNESS SPONSORED BY https://t.co/RtFomcGS5v pic.twitter.com/t9XqsNd6da
— Ben Armstrong (@Bitboy_Crypto) April 20, 2023
Other defendants that have been issued lawsuits as regards FTX include Graham Stephan, and Brian Jung, along with Creators Agency and its founder Erika Kullberg.
It is hoped that the law will eventually take its course and reach those that try to evade it.
