Supermodel Gisele Bundchen described the collapse of FTX in late 2022 as terrible, saying it blindsided her.
Bu ndchen told Vanity Fair that she was no different from everyone else who trusted the hype. According to Bu ndchen, she had thought it was a sound and great thing based on what my financial advisers told her, according to the outlet.
Bu ndchen had become an adviser to FTX for environmental and social initiatives as part of a long-term partnership announced by the exchange in June 2021.
ATHLETES, she also took an equity stake as well as a criptocurrency, the company said at the time. Retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady, her ex-husband, also had a deal with FTX as an ambassador, and he received equity in the company and cryptocurrencies, according to the release.
Bu ndchen entered her partnership with FTX about 16 months before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2022. She, Brady and some other celebrities have been involved in a class-action lawsuit due to FTX's collapse and their past promotion of the company.
On FTX, Bu ndchen told Vanity Fair: I am so sorry for all of us that this happened, and I just pray justice gets made. Since the collapse of the exchange, founder and former CEO Sam Bankman- Fried faces 12 charges including wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, commodities fraud conspiracy and securities fraud conspiracy. Bankman- Fried, who has pleaded not guilty, stepped down from his role as CEO the same day the company filed for bankruptcy.
U.S. prosecutors allege that he and others conspired to defraud customers of the FTX by misappropriating billions of dollars of those customers' funds. They claimed that they used them for personal use, to make investments and millions of dollars of political contributions to federal political candidates and committees, and to repay billions of dollars in loans owed by FTX-linked Alameda Research.
The collapse of the exchange caused direct and indirect fallout in the sector, and was once one of the largest. The collapse of FTX and other events in the sector have resulted in increased examination and calls for regulation by lawmakers.