Al Nassr star Cristiano Ronaldo is being sued in a Florida District Court for promoting the cryptocurrency trading platform Binance. The claimants, Michael Sizemore, Mikey Vongdara, and Gordon Lewis, allege that they suffered financial damages as a result of Ronaldo’s promotion of the site. The website is accused of failing to implement sufficient anti-money laundering safeguards. Furthermore, the site recently had to pay US authorities $4.3 billion in compensation.
According to Cointelegraph.in, the filing read, Ronaldo “promoted, assisted in, and/or actively participated in the offer and sale of unregistered securities in coordination with Binance.“
In mid-2022, Binance announced a multiyear partnership with Ronaldo to market a series of his own nonfungible tokens (NFTs). At least three of the football star’s collections are associated with Binance.
According to the lawsuit, people who registered for Ronaldo’s NFTs were more inclined to use Binance for other reasons. These include investments in what they believe are unregistered securities, such as Binance’s crypto yield programmes.
Ronaldo played an important part of Binance’s rising popularity due to his popularity and reach, with 850 million followers across social media. According to them, his NFT sales were “incredibly successful” in promoting the exchange. Thus, the week following the initial sale, there was a 500% rise in searches for Binance.
The lawsuit filing states, that Ronaldo knew or should have known “about Binance selling unregistered crypto securities,” because he has “investment experience and vast resources to obtain outside advisers.”
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The action cited guidelines from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Its purpose was to remind celebrities about the importance of disclosing funds received for supporting cryptocurrency. According to the lawsuit, Ronaldo did not follow the same. Plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit want monetary damages as well as money to cover legal bills.
Meanwhile, Binance and its founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao are dealing with legal issues of their own. He is pleading guilty and agreeing to pay the US government $4.3 billion in restitution for breaches of anti-money laundering rules. He has also faced accusations for operating an unlicensed money-transfer firm.
Zhao resigned as CEO and now faces up to 18 months in jail. Binance has consented to a five-year compliance monitoring period by the US Departments of Justice and Treasury. The SEC has also filed a lawsuit against Binance, alleging that it traded unregistered securities. They are also apparently looking into whether Binance misused consumer payments.
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