There is a so-called class action lawsuit, a class action lawsuit filed against a number of celebrities for their involvement with the Bored Ape Yacht Club. These include Justin Bieber, Madonna, Steph Curry and Paris Hilton. They broke the law by promoting the NFT collection without disclosing their financial relationship with Yuga Labs.
Large list of defendants
So the list includes a lot of celebrities. But the board of Yuga Labs and MoonPay, the crypto payment company that helped pay, are also on the list. Although the lawsuit is based on 10 charges, there is a clear red line in the story. It’s about a pump of value from Bored Apes directed by Hollywood’s elite.
It seems Guy Oseary, the man who was Madonna’s manager for a long time, was the linchpin of the network. Oseary would have urged his entire network of celebrities, in exchange for payments from Yuga Labs via Moonpay, to promote the Bored Ape NFTs. It is striking that Oseary was also an early investor in MoonPay.
MoonPay popular among celebrities
By the way, MoonPay is now valued at $3.4 billion. The list of investors includes many celebrities, including Justin Bieber, Steph Curry, Paris Hilton, Kevin Hart, Jimmy Fallon and Gwyneth Paltrow. The company became popular in 2021 by offering a service for celebrities where they bought expensive NFTs for them.
It now appears that MoonPay was used to secretly pass on payments from Yuga Labs. Yuga Labs, by the way, completely denies the allegations. “From our point of view, these claims are expedient and parasitic. We believe they have no ground and look forward to proving it,” said a Yuga Labs representative.
The new lawsuit against Yuga Labs comes from Scott + Scott, which also announced another case against Yuga in July. In that case, Scott + Scott alleges that Yuga Labs violated financial laws by releasing and promoting Bored Ape NFTs and ApeCoin.