“Pro basketball player Jimmy Butler and crypto advocate Ben Armstrong seek a settlement in a Binance class action lawsuit while asserting their innocence.”
Jimmy Butler, an NBA player, and Ben Armstrong, a.k.a. “BitBoy,” a cryptocurrency YouTuber, have agreed to pay $340,000 to settle a class-action complaint alleging they promoted Binance. This company allegedly offered unregistered securities.
On August 19, attorneys representing the class group requested that a Miami federal judge provide preliminary approval to the agreement, which would end a case that has been pending since March 2023.
A copy of Butler’s settlement agreement, states that he would pay $300,000 and that he “adamantly denies any wrongdoing.” He feels that if the case went to trial, he would “be absolved of all liability.”
Armstrong agrees to pay $40,000. He also disputes “any wrongdoing or liability,” arguing that he has “valid defences” against the allegations.
To save money and effort, both parties decided to settle.
The lawsuit also targets BAM Trading, the company’s American subsidiary, and the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, along with its imprisoned former CEO Changpeng Zhao. A June 2023 amended complaint listed Paxos Trust Company, the stablecoin issuer, as a defendant.
Adam Moskowitz, the managing partner of the Moskowitz Law Firm, stated that the firm’s year-long research “revealed that Binance is also selling unregistered securities and thus needs to be held accountable.”
“Every promoter of these unregistered securities, including Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat, will be held accountable,” he continued.
The lawsuit claimed that Butler and Armstrong were compensated Binance promoters and that the exchange offered unregistered securities or cryptocurrency.
Along with Zhao and Binance, Butler and Armstrong, she had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Armstrong’s attorney, Darren Heitner, stated, “We won’t have any comment other than that a resolution was found.”
Potentially millions of users of Binance.US and Binance.com who utilized its staking products, BNB Vault or Simple Earn, as well as those who bought, held, or sold BNB BNB$569, its defunct stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD), could be included in the settlement class. The Sandbox SAND$0.27, Decentraland MANA$0.28, Algorand ALGO$0.14, Axie Infinity AXS$4.91, Filecoin FIL$3.81, CardanoADA$0.37, Polygon MATIC$0.5348, Solana SOL$142, Cosmos ATO$4.71, or COTI (COTI).
