Tom Brady, Stephen Curry and other big names are mostly off the hook from the FTX fallout
A group of FTX investors claimed that the celebs should be held liable in a suit filed shortly after the exchange's collapse.
'None of these defendants performed any due diligence prior to marketing these FTX products to the public,' according to the original lawsuit.
However, in an order filed Wednesday, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore found that the plaintiffs failed to show that the celebrities and YouTubers named in the lawsuit had insufficient knowledge of FTX and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's business to be held liable for promoting the exchange.
According to a New York Times report, Brady received $30 million in now-worthless stock for pitching the company in television ads and at its conference. Brady's then-wife, Gisele Bündchen, received $18 million in stock, per the report. All shares are now worthless.
Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as 'SBF,' launched the cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2019. As the COVID-19 pandemic later boosted cryptocurrency trading worldwide, FTX rode the wave. In 2020, FTX purchased Blockfolio, the market's leading mobile news and portfolio tracking app, for $150 million. Bankman-Fried appeared as a speaker at various crypto and blockchain conferences, attracting a large following.
But in November 2022, the crypto news website CoinDesk reported on FTX's poor balance sheet and liquidity crisis. Big names such as cryptocurrency exchange Binance opted not to provide any support to FTX or Bankman-Fried.
FTX quickly collapsed, resulting in a loss of $10 billion in customer funds. This had a ripple effect on other crypto companies, throwing them into financial turmoil. Several companies with direct or indirect connections to FTX — including BlockFi, Voyager, Celsius, Genesis, and Gemini — went bankrupt in a matter of weeks. The cryptocurrency market saw its darkest period to-date, resulting in a loss of more than $1 trillion, and Bitcoin's price dropped below $18,000.
In November of 2023, a federal jury in New York convicted Bankman-Fried of fraud on seven different fraud and conspiracy charges and stealing at least $10 billion from customers and investors.
—Vinamrata Chaturvedi contributed to this article.
For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
26 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
After Boston's lab building boom, one-third of it sits empty. What do we do now?
Laboratory space inside 74M. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff Advertisement After a COVID-era building boom, The glut of space is particularly striking Advertisement Yet now, converting those empty labs is both financially and physically difficult. And that leaves the real estate industry grappling with a vexing question: What the heck do we do with all this empty space? It's not as easy to swap out lab space for new tenants such as a traditional office or light manufacturing, or converting an Lab buildings are far more technically complicated than most others, with elaborate mechanical and air-treatment systems that take up much more room and are costlier to build. Rishi Nandi, a leader in design firm Sasaki's science and technology practice, said lab space can cost around $1,200 per square foot — at least 50 percent more than office space. That means a lab building commands higher rents to make sense to investors. When developers borrow money to fund construction, they model what the building is expected generate in rent, to show lenders the kind of return they can expect. Lab users typically pay higher rents than a standard office user; asking rent for a new lab in Greater Boston is about $85 per square foot, versus around $50 on average for office space, Newmark research shows. Investors who financed a lab building will want to see that higher number. A view of 109 Brookline Ave. in Boston's Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood. David L Ryan/ Globe Staff Most owners or operators considering different uses for their lab space have buildings in 'core and shell' status — meaning they are all but done but for the final fit out of the tenants's specific gear and fixtures. Still, even some 'core and shell' buildings have multiple millions of dollars' worth of HVAC systems, cooling towers, and other specialized equipment. Advertisement Then there are the physical challenges of converting lab space into office or housing. Typically, around 40 percent of a lab building is designed for office use. But the whole building needs robust mechanical systems, redundant power — so as not lose research in the case of a power outage — and much more intense ventilation. In all, lab buildings typically have three times as much mechanical equipment as office buildings, said Larry Dubord, senior chief engineer with JLL. In the mechanical floor on the 17th floor of 74M, a 10-foot-by-20-foot air duct sprawls across much of the double-height floor, pushing air into workspaces below. HVAC systems in lab buildings don't recirculate air within the building as offices and apartment buildings do, but instead constantly bring in outside air that has to be heated, cooled, or dehumidified before it can go into workspaces. The ductwork for all that often requires higher ceilings, which eats into rentable space. A 300-foot apartment tower could feature at least 25 stories with hundreds of units; by contrast, the 294-foot 74M has just 15 rentable floors for tenants. The difference in ceiling heights, Nandi of Sasaki said, translates to potentially dozens fewer apartments paying rent each month. Massive air ducts, such as those in 74M, are needed for lab space. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff 'When you look at it from a financial modeling perspective, it's just a lot less space,' he said. Advertisement And there are small but crucial differences in how different kinds of buildings are designed, said Troy Depeiza, a principal and co-founder of architecture firm DREAM Collaborative in Boston and an expert in designing life science labs. Warehouses, for instance, need floors that can hold a lot more weight, to safely load goods and drive forklifts. Residential building codes require lots of windows. Even elevators, staircases, and bathrooms are often placed differently in lab buildings than in residential or industrial. 'There's going to be a whole lot of rejiggering to make that work,' he said. It just 'wouldn't be efficient." So, for the most part, their owners have few options other than waiting for the market to recover. Some, though, are 'looking hard at marketing those spaces to other users,' be it office or medical office tenants closer to Boston or so-called 'tough tech' and advanced manufacturing out in the suburbs, said Liz Berthelette, the head of Northeast research with Newmark in Boston. Empty lab space overlooks housing in Somerville at 74M. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff One developer leasing lab buildings to life-science companies — but not to use as laboratories — is Boston Properties, now known as BXP. The office giant broke ground in 2021 on a $290.5 million lab building next to the ThermoFisher Scientific's headquarters in Waltham's CityPoint; earlier this year it signed a lease with a unnamed life-science company that only wanted the office space. The firm is now negotiating two similar deals in the building, BXP president Doug Linde told Wall Street analysts last month. 'The economics of doing an office transaction on raw space, even though the building had been purpose-built for lab and has the infrastructure, are far superior to lab transactions today, given the elevated tenant improvements necessary to compete in the lab market,' he said. Advertisement For developers of lab projects that haven't yet started construction, switching uses may also be a tough financial loss to swallow. Many paid a premium for the land on the expectation of charging higher lab rents, and pivoting to another use such as housing means potentially years in permitting, with all the architect, attorney, and engineering bills that would entail. But some are deciding to make such a change: In June, Bulfinch president Robert A. Schlager That shift can also come at a cost to municipalities. Many cities and towns across Greater Boston leaned hard on the lab boom to diversify their tax bases and bring in more commercial tax revenue, which would help offset the burden on homeowners. Somerville, for example, has seen nearly 2 million square feet of new lab space since 2020, a crucial part of its especially after Some of the labs are bustling and full; others, like 74M, stand empty. 74M at Middlesex Avenue outside Assembly Square in Somerville is vacant. David L Ryan/ Globe Staff Tom Galligani, executive director of Somerville's office of strategic planning and community development, said the city is fortunate in that its lab space is new construction and not conversions of older offices, as was the case in many nearby suburbs. The new buildings incorporate rigorous energy efficiency standards that are attractive to future tenants, and Galligani is confident they will at some point be occupied. Advertisement 'All of our stuff is brand new," he said. 'I'd like to think we're not going to have the same challenges in the life-science space. But of course, time will tell.' Matt DeNoble, a senior director for Greystar, the developer behind the 74M building, said the firm is better off waiting for the right tenants than to try to force a use that doesn't make sense. With immediate 'We're starting to see groups say: 'It's time for us to make decisions,'' DeNoble said. 'We are not worried long term about filling this building up.' The main lobby of the new lab building at 74 Middlesex Avenue. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff Catherine Carlock can be reached at
Los Angeles Times
26 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
A second act for empty office space? How skyscrapers in downtown L.A. could ease the housing crisis
The transformation of a sleek, granite-clad office tower on the edge of the 110 Freeway into deluxe apartments is about to begin, and developer Garrett Lee thinks the nearly 40-year-old building can be competitive with downtown L.A.'s much newer upmarket housing. A mock-up of an apartment assembled in the L.A. Care tower on 7th Street reveals high ceilings, tall windows and sweeping views of the city that speak to the appeal of urban living. It could also be a harbinger of what's to become of other fancy office towers. With downtown's office rental market mired in high vacancies and falling values, stakeholders are clamoring for more city support to convert high-rises to housing that would help address the city's persistent housing shortage. Among the suggested targets for conversion are elite Financial District towers that commanded top rents before offices were shut down by COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders, leaving many buildings more than one-third vacant. Failure to make at least some of them into housing could be financially catastrophic for taxpayers, according to a new study commissioned by the Central City Assn. of Los Angeles, a downtown business advocacy group that says the city should consider giving developers financial incentives to convert their buildings. Office values have fallen dramatically in recent sales, and many owners are seeking public reappraisals of their buildings in hope of reducing their property taxes. When assessed values of buildings are reduced, so are the taxes collected by the county and shared with the city, school districts and other public entities. 'Declining assessed values are likely to translate into significant losses in General Fund revenue' for the city, according to the report by BAE Urban Economics, a Berkeley real estate consulting firm. Efforts to create a second act for underused office towers that were the height of corporate prestige a generation ago are part of a larger drama playing out in a financial center that has lost much of its shine in the years since the pandemic started. Restaurants and shops have struggled with the departure of many workers while homelessness and a sense that sidewalks aren't safe have risen and helped lead to the departure of some office tenants. Downtown L.A. has 54 office buildings that are at immediate risk of devaluation and could result in nearly $70 billion in lost value over the next 10 years, the report said, creating a potential loss of $353 million in property tax revenues. Buildings potentially would have more value as apartments or condominiums and could make a dent in expected tax losses. Converting just 10 big office buildings to housing would boost their combined assessed property value over a decade by $12 billion, adding $46 million in tax revenue and creating more than 3,800 residential units, the report said. Meanwhile, demand for housing in downtown L.A. has held steady even as the need for offices has waned. Occupancy in apartments has remained about 90% for more than a year, slightly higher than the level before the pandemic. And unlike most neighborhoods in Los Angeles County, downtown has seen a monumental housing construction boom in recent years. In the last decade, 22% of the new housing in the city has been built downtown, where city planning policies encourage dense development, according to the DTLA Alliance business improvement district. To be sure, downtown will retain its identity as a white-collar business center even as its housing component grows. At 56.5 million square feet, downtown is one of the largest office markets in the country and is an important economic engine for the city, said Nella McOsker, president of the Central City Assn. Business leaders in the association will continue to support efforts to refill office buildings with workers, she said, even as they encourage the conversion of some buildings to housing. 'We're not giving up on folks coming into the office in large numbers,' McOsker said, 'but we need to always evolve.' The BAE Urban Economics report does not identify the 10 buildings used to calculate the financial effects of converting them to housing, but previous discussions of prime candidates have included some of the most prominent towers on the city skyline that were built in the latter part of the 20th century. Among them are 777 Tower and Union Bank Plaza, both on Figueroa Street, and Gas Company Tower at the foot of Bunker Hill near Pershing Square. The list of conversion candidates is confidential because publicizing them might 'put a scarlet letter around their neck' when most are 'actually very good office buildings,' said John Adams, a managing principal at Gensler. The architecture firm selected potential candidates for conversion, which have recently faced financial straits and low occupancy. The Gas Company Tower was sold to Los Angeles County last year for about $200 million, a steep drop from its $632-million valuation in 2020. The 777 Tower traded a year ago for $120 million, a 70% drop from its 2013 sale price, according to real estate data provider CoStar. Union Bank Plaza, a 40-story tower completed in 1967, is an attractive candidate in part because it has a retail complex at the base that would be a good amenity for residents as well as office tenants, Adams said. The 55-story 777 Tower, completed in 1991, was designed by architect César Pelli, who designed some of the world's tallest buildings including the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Part of its appeal is that it has separate banks of elevators for different tiers of floors, Adams said, which could make it easier to convert some floors to housing while others remain offices. With renovations, residents could have a separate lobby entrance from office workers. Many early 20th century office buildings downtown have already been converted to apartments and hotels, but housing advocates are now eyeing the newer generation of towers that dominated the office market in the last three decades. Among them are ripe candidates to become residences, mostly built from the 1970s to 1990s, Adams said. Their 'slick glass-and-marble aesthetic' is visually appealing, he said, and they were built in a way that the outer skins can be modified to include balconies and operable windows. 'These towers are hackable,' Adams said. The city is close to adopting a new building code that will make it easier for developers to get approvals to convert offices built after 1975. A previous code for conversions that focused on buildings erected before that year, when construction standards were less stringent, led to a boom in office, apartment, condo and hotel conversions starting in the early 2000s. Newer buildings such as the L.A. Care tower are 'night and day' more attractive to convert to housing than the midcentury buildings Lee's company, Jamison Properties, has converted in the past, he said. Downtown's Class A buildings have more modern systems such as elevators and electrical service, and may require fewer upgrades to meet seismic standards than older structures. The city recently determined that Jamison Properties did not need to perform a structural retrofit of the L.A. Care tower at 1055 W. 7th St., Lee said. Los Angeles County officials, meanwhile, have declared that Gas Company Tower is seismically safe, but are reviewing bids to perform more than $230 million worth of proactive upgrades 'to ensure that the building performs optimally in the decades ahead,' a representative said. The highest hurdle for private landlords considering turning an office building into apartments or condos is typically financial; it often costs more to acquire and convert a building than can be justified by expected rents. City leaders should consider offering financial incentives such as those found in other cities to bridge the gap to profitability, the report said, citing programs in other central business districts. New York, Washington and Boston have property tax abatement programs, for example. San Francisco offers transfer tax exemptions, and Chicago uses tax-increment financing to encourage some redevelopments. In Canada, Calgary offers direct grants. The Central City Assn. wants the city to consider financial incentives for conversions, even though it is experiencing budget shortfalls, McOsker said. As of May, the city faced a nearly $1-billion budget shortfall. McOsker suggested that the city form a team to focus on conversions and perhaps do it at a scale 'well outside of downtown Los Angeles.' Helping turn unused offices into housing is important to city officials, said Rachel Freeman, deputy mayor of business and economic development. 'We have a deep need for more housing at all levels of affordability,' she said. 'Adaptive reuse has the potential to be a tool to help achieve our goals towards housing production and also the revitalization of our core urban centers.' Zoning and building codes should be 'more supportive' of the process, she said, adding that the mayor's office also is open to the idea of financial incentives for builders. For the vibrancy of downtown and other core business centers also facing falling office values, Freeman said, 'there is a cost to doing nothing.'
Axios
26 minutes ago
- Axios
DeKalb officer killed in CDC shooting remembered as investigation continues
The DeKalb County police officer killed while responding to an active shooter incident near the CDC on Friday is being remembered as a young father with a clear definition of public service. Driving the news: David Rose, a 33-year-old U.S. Marine and married father of two with another on the way, was one of the first officers to arrive at the CDC's Clifton Road headquarters to reports of gunfire just before rush hour on Friday. Rose, who joined the department in September, graduated from the police academy five months ago and was a class leader, DeKalb County said in a statement. "We wanted to wear the badge, not for the sake of the title, but for the responsibility that comes with it," Rose told his classmates at the March graduation. "And responsibility is exactly what this job demands." Rose's mother was an Emory Hospital ICU nurse for nearly 20 years, so he knew the area well, DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson told the AJC. "This young man, as a kid, literally grew up in the Emory community — walking the halls of the hospital," Cochran-Johnson said. What they're saying: Officer Rose served DeKalb County "with courage, integrity, and unwavering dedication," DeKalb police said in a statement on Friday. "Even in the face of danger was he diligent in his duty to protect our community." What we're watching: Details about Rose's funeral arrangements have not been released as of Sunday. State of play: CDC workers have been advised to work from home and take safety precautions as investigators continue to piece together what prompted Friday's shooting. Catch up quick: The Georgia Bureau of Investigation identified Patrick Joseph White, a 30-year-old Kennesaw resident, as the shooter. Officers found White dead on the second floor of a CVS across the street. They have not said whether his wounds were self-inflicted or the result of police gunfire. Threat level: CDC offices are expected to be closed on Monday, the New York Times reported, citing a memo to employees from the agency's security team. Workers were also advised to remove agency stickers and decals from their vehicles. Zoom in: Investigators have not released the alleged shooter's motive. The New York Times and CNN, citing an unnamed official, reported that White blamed his health ailments on the COVID-19 vaccine. Nancy Hoalst, who lived across the street from the home White shared with his parents, told the Times he seemed "unsettled" and "very deeply believed that vaccines had hurt him… and that they were hurting other people." As of Sunday evening, the GBI, which is leading the investigation, said the agency had no updates to share. Between the lines: The shooting and the apparent motive behind it raise questions about the dangers of vaccine conspiracy theories and misinformation and compound the stress on a workforce already strained by budget cuts. On Friday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime and vocal vaccine skeptic, released a statement saying, "[N]o one should face violence while working to protect the health of others." The big picture: Friday's shooting also prompted Georgia Democrats, including House minority leader Carolyn Hugley (D-Columbus) and state Sen. Elena Parent (D-Atlanta), to call for laws and policies to reduce gun violence.
