Judge okays early approval of $2.4M deal with sports stars over Voyager
A legal settlement involving three sports stars has received preliminary approval from a Florida judge. The settlement allows them to pay more than $2.4 million in monetary relief over claims they promoted crypto firm Voyager Digital.
In a June 10 filing in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Judge Roy Altman granted preliminary approval of a class action settlement involving NFL star Robert Gronkowski, NBA player Victor Oladipo and Nascar driver Landon Cassill. Lawyers for the three sports personalities announced in May that they had agreed to collectively pay roughly $2.4 million to settle the case, with Gronkowski alone paying $1.9 million.
The class-action lawsuit, initially filed against former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in 2022, alleged the billionaire misrepresented Voyager’s services, causing inexperienced investors to lose their money when the firm filed for bankruptcy. If given final approval by the court, the proposed settlement would resolve matters for Gronkowski, Oladipo and Cassill but not for Cuban or the Mavericks.
Related: Mark Cuban to face questioning under oath over promotion of Voyager
The civil lawsuit is unrelated to other legal proceedings in which Voyager debtors have been embroiled since 2022. The firm had been in bankruptcy court and dealt with claims over funds at Three Arrows Capital and the defunct crypto exchange FTX.
In April, a judge signed off on a motion in which FTX would “relinquish any and all rights” to roughly $450 million in funds that will be used to compensate Voyager creditors. In 2023, a federal judge approved an order requiring Voyager and its affiliates to pay more than $1.6 billion in monetary relief to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Trade Commission have filed parallel lawsuits against former Voyager CEO Stephen Ehrlich for fraudulent statements related to the company’s services. The cases were ongoing at the time of publication.
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