Due to the promotion of virtual currency,Football star Cristiano Ronaldo (Cristiano Ronaldo) was hit by a class action lawsuit and was required to pay at least US$1 billion (about 7.1 billion yuan) in damages.
Recently, Ronaldo was subject to a class action lawsuit by a number of virtual currency investors in the United States, who were accused of participating in the promotion of virtual tokens (NFTs) issued by Binance, a virtual currency trading platform, and were required to pay at least $1 billion in compensation.
Cristiano Ronaldo is involved in a $1 billion claim.
A few days ago, a number of virtual currency investors filed a lawsuit in the Southern District Court of Florida in the United States, saying that Ronaldo's promotion for Binance was suspected of being "deceptive and illegal". The plaintiffs allege that Binance's partnership with high-profile figures such as Ronaldo has led them to make costly and unsafe investments.
"There is evidence that Binance's fraudulent issuance and sale of unregistered** is so widespread and related to the voluntary help and assistance of some of the world's richest and most influential high-profile organizations and celebrities – such as defendant Cristiano Ronaldo," the lawsuit reads. ”
Ronaldo's partnership with Binance dates back to November last year.
Ahead of the 2022 World Cup, Ronaldo partnered with Binance to launch his first "CR7" series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The tokens start at $77 to $10,000, but are worth only $1 after a year.
The investor lawsuit alleges that Ronaldo's promotional efforts with Binance have been "very successful" — with searches using "Binance" as a keyword increasing by 500% following the announcement of the soccer star's token collection. The high-grade tokens in the series sold out in the first week of release.
The lawsuit also alleges that Ronaldo's involvement caused a significant loss of their investment, which cost them more than $1 billion. Ronaldo should disclose how much Binance paid him. The U.S. Exchange Commission previously noted that federal law requires celebrities to publicly disclose the compensation they receive for promoting, including cryptoassets.
NFT stands for Non-fungible Token, which is a unique virtual currency token used to represent digital assets, which is indivisible, irreplaceable, and unique. In 2021, NFTs experienced a brief boom, but this year, their value has shrunk significantly as the virtual currency market continues to decline.
Binance exploded. Recently, it was fined more than 30 billion yuan.
According to public information, Binance is a global virtual currency exchange that provides a trading platform for more than 100 virtual currencies. As of the end of 2022, Binance had more than 1200 million users, processing about $65 billion worth of transactions every day, accounting for up to 70% of the market share
This summer, U.S. regulators accused Binance of operating without a license and violating a series of U.S.** laws.
On November 21, local time, the official website of the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Binance admitted to participating in suspected money laundering, unlicensed remittances and sanctions violations, and agreed to pay a fine of 4.3 billion US dollars (about 30.7 billion yuan). Meanwhile, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao admitted that he failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and has resigned as CEO.
According to court documents, Binance has admitted to prioritizing growth and profits over compliance with U.S. law. In addition, as part of the plea agreement, Binance also agreed to retain an independent compliance monitor for three years to correct and strengthen its anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance program.
On November 22, Changpeng Zhao announced his resignation on social platforms, saying that his resignation was the right move and that he would take responsibility for the mistakes he made.
Longtime Binance executive Richard Teng will succeed Changpeng Zhao as Binance's new CEO. However, Changpeng Zhao is still the majority shareholder of Binance.
At the end of 2021, against the backdrop of the sharp rise in many virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Changpeng Zhao was once the richest man in China with a net worth of 94.1 billion US dollars (about 634.8 billion yuan), and also ranked among the top ten richest people in the world.
According to the 2023 "Hurun Global Rich List", Changpeng Zhao's current net worth is 80 billion yuan, a decrease of nearly 90%.