TL;DR
- The NBA sued for million-dollar losses linked to Voyager Digital.
- Investors claim negligence in promoting unregistered financial assets.
- McCarter & English also charged in the case.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is facing a class-action lawsuit proposed by disgruntled investors of Voyager Digital, a collapsed cryptocurrency platform, alleging that the league is partially responsible for their million-dollar losses.
The lawsuit, filed in a Miami court on February 6, accuses the NBA of being “grossly negligent” in approving a promotional agreement between Voyager and the Dallas Mavericks, an NBA basketball team owned by Mark Cuban.
According to the plaintiffs, the NBA should have acted as a kind of “gatekeeper,” properly assessing the risks associated with promoting cryptocurrency platforms like Voyager, Coinbase, and FTX.
The NBA is alleged to have accepted “billions in promotional compensation” while facing significant losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which would have led it to take a more permissive stance toward financial risks.
The lawsuit points to law firm McCarter & English, which issued a legal opinion to support the legality of Voyager tokens
The plaintiffs accuse the law firm of using its credibility to issue a misleading opinion about the nature of the tokens and NFT’s, which would have contributed to the mistaken trust of potential investors and partners in the platform.
This is not the first litigation related to Voyager and its associations.
Previously, in 2022, a group of investors sued former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban for promoting Voyager and allegedly representing it as safe, an allegation he strongly denies.
The legal situation surrounding partnerships between celebrities, sports organizations, and cryptocurrency companies has become increasingly tense, especially after the collapse of FTX in 2022.
Lawsuits have been filed against numerous figures, including the Mercedes Formula 1 team, Major League Baseball, Tom Brady, Steph Curry, Shaquille O’Neal and Larry David, among others.
As of the current moment, neither the NBA nor McCarter & English have provided any statements regarding the lawsuit.
At present, there has been no response from either the NBA or McCarter & English regarding the legal proceedings.
The resolution of this case could have significant implications for the liability of partnerships between sports organizations and cryptocurrency companies in the future.
