(Reuters) – The Golden State Warriors were sued on Monday by an FTX account holder who accused the reigning National Basketball Association champions of fraudulently promoting the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange.
Elliott Lam, a Canadian citizen and Hong Kong resident who said he lost $750,000 in his FTX yield-bearing account, filed his proposed class-action lawsuit in San Francisco federal court.
Other defendants include Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded FTX, and Caroline Ellison, who led Bankman-Fried’s trading firm Alameda Research.
Lam accused the defendants of falsely representing that FTX was a “viable and safe way to invest in crypto,” in order to deceive consumers into investing there.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for people outside the United States with FTX yield-bearing accounts.
Spokespeople for the Warriors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The team had last December named FTX its official cryptocurrency platform, in what it called a first-of-its-kind cryptocurrency partnership in professional sports.
It paused promotions related to FTX last week, according to published reports.
Another NBA team, the Miami Heat, on Nov. 11 said it would drop the FTX name from its home arena and seek a new naming sponsor.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Amy Tennery; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
