November 30 – Cristiano Ronaldo is in the news again, this time named in a $1billion class action lawsuit in the United States over his involvement with Binance , the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.
The plaintiffs claim his endorsement led them to make loss-making investments and are seeking damages of “a sum exceeding” $1 billion.
The Portuguese superstar joined forces with Binance on a sponsorship deal in June 2022
The exchange has been branded “a significant risk” to consumers by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Despite the concerns, the Portuguese star appears to still be involved with Binance and is an active partner of the company, regularly asking his hundreds of millions of social media followers to “join his Web3 community”.
As a result, the plaintiffs’ lawyers have levelled the claim against the five-time Ballon d’Or winner to say that his alliance with the company had seen him “engaged in the mass solicitation of investments in unregistered securities”.
In the complaint filed to the United States District Court, Southern District of Florida in Miami, Ronaldo is claimed to have “promoted, assisted in, and/or actively participated in the offer and sale of unregistered securities in coordination with Binance”.
With more than 700 million followers across X and Instagram, the plaintiffs argue that Ronaldo, now playing in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr, has helped to grow Binance’s user base with “a sustained and aggressive promotion and advertising campaign”.
The complaint also cites that the player, as a “paid spokesman”, should have disclosed any payments received for promoting cryptocurrencies as mandated by US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) guidelines.
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