Cristiano Ronaldo Dragged to Court For Promoting Binance
Soccer star Ronaldo sued over Binance crypto promotions; Binance faces SEC suit and $4.3B fine for legal issues.
A lawsuit has been filed against Cristiano Ronaldo, a famous soccer player for his promotion of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The lawsuit was filed on November 27 in Florida, according to the lawsuit, Ronaldo was promoting and selling unregistered securities in collaboration with Binance.
Binance partnered with Ronaldo in 2022, They used his fame to promote a series of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) about the famous footballer. The lawsuit claims that more users began to use Binance for investment because of Ronaldo's NFT promotions, including investments in unregistered securities like Binance's BNB and crypto yield programs.
The plaintiffs argue that Ronaldo's influence gave a great boost to Binance's popularity, leading to a 500% increase in searches for "Binance" after his NFT sale. They believe Ronaldo, with his investment experience, should have known about the legal issues with Binance's offerings.
Celebrities are required to report payments made to them for promoting cryptocurrencies to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) according to their guidelines. which the lawsuit claims Ronaldo did not do. The plaintiffs, Michael Sizemore, Mikey Vongdara, and Gordon Lewis, are seeking damages and legal fee coverage.
Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, face their legal challenges. They pleaded guilty to money laundering charges and Binance paid a $4.3 billion settlement while Zhao stepped down as CEO and may be sentenced to as much as 18 months in prison. Binance will be under government compliance monitoring for up to five years.
The SEC has also sued Binance for various charges, including selling unregistered securities and possibly misusing customer funds.