North America’s premier basketball league is facing a lawsuit from a group of disappointed Voyager investors who claim the league is implicitly responsible for their losses on the defunct platform.
A potential class-action lawsuit is threatening to derail the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) marketing partnerships with the defunct cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital, which the platform’s customers say caused losses exceeding $4.2 billion.
The nearly 100-page action, filed in a Miami district court on February 6, alleged that the NBA was “grossly negligent” when it authorized Voyager’s advertising arrangement with the Dallas Mavericks. Reportedly intended to “act as the ‘gatekeeper.'” The lawsuit describes the marketing efforts of the two companies.
This case is “just an effort to make the NBA pay,” the class action plaintiffs say. “Any and all losses that may arise are the NBA’s responsibility, due to its extensive advertising of Voyager’s unregistered securities.”
The plaintiffs also claim that while dealing with “empty stadiums and the loss of billions in broadcast income” as a result of COVID-19, the NBA “deliberately opted to embrace the dangers” of collaborating with cryptocurrency exchanges like Voyager, Coinbase, and FTX, and that it took “billions in promotional incentives” in return.
McCarter & English, Voyager’s legal firm, was also mentioned in the lawsuit. It claims the business used its reputation to “assuage the fears of prospective investors and partners” that Voyager’s offers were “totally above board” and to give “a fraudulent ‘Legal Opinion'” stating that Voyager’s token was not an unregistered security.
This same organization sued Mark Cuban, the former owner of the Dallas Mavericks, in 2022, claiming that Cuban marketed Voyager and lied about its safety. Cuban rejects the allegations. It became “now evident” due to the “substantial discovery” in that complaint that the class action needed to include the NBA and McCarter & English in its lawsuit.
