Udonis Haslem, a Miami native for 20 years, finds himself on the losing end. Not on the court, but on the financial end of things. He was one of the many spokespersons for FTX, a cryptocurrency trading platform. And in its demise, he too saw his money vanish.
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Just like other crypto exchanges of the past, FTX is a now-defunct platform that had liquidity issues. Over this last year, we’ve seen a slump in cryptocurrency markets, which has prompted many to pull out their money. And that caused a panic at the FTX headquarters.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the platform’s founder, is now facing criminal fraud charges. A “Bankman” arrested for fraud? Where have we seen that? Oh, just all the time!
To keep the company afloat, he brought in players like Haslem Udonis and Shaquille O’Neal for sums upward of 15 million Dollars. He then made them the public faces of the company while he scrambled to get multiple rounds of investment. That plan failed, and the scam quickly came to light.
Now, everyone who had signed contracts to invest in or endorse the company has been fooled out of life-changing money, Udonis was one of them.
Cryptocurrency may be the future – the trading platforms however are still not robust
Cryptocurrency has been the topic of rage for a good chunk of the last decade, and people are now starting to see it for what it is. Companies used various platforms to promote usage, FTX included. Some of them even sponsored complete sports teams.
Two of the most well-known teams with renamed arenas are the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat. While Crypto.com took LA, FTX roped in the Miami Heat to get the naming rights of their stadium. American Airlines Arena, as it was formerly known in Miami, was granted naming rights for exorbitant amounts of cash.
And it all seemed to be going well until Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested for fraud. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology alum, Bankman-Fried, took on way more than he could handle. What essentially became of it was a Ponzi scheme.
The company tried to pull names like Shaquille O’Neal, Stephen Curry, Kevin O’Leary, and Udonis Haslem to keep customer belief in them. The account holders were already feeling the heat since they were not allowed to withdraw their money from their accounts.
A lot of these “investors” now feel the heat because they openly promoted a company that was actively involved in criminal activities.
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Udonis Haslem says his intentions were pure – he only took on the endorsement role to put that money back into the community
Udonis claimed that he was “gypped out of $15 million,” money that would have gone to people in the community. He had promised a lot of investments based on this money, and now all he has are broken promises.
Plus, the company has its headquarters in the Bahamas, where Haslem has a lot of relatives. It felt like a blow from home, and Haslem feels disappointed. He’s done a lot for the city of Miami and wishes to do a lot more. Now, he has to be more careful about picking endorsements.
