Being Sued | The FTX Class-Action Lawsuit.

it's official YouTube content creators

have started getting slapped with a

class action lawsuit for being

associated with promoting

FTX now this is terrible anybody who's

lost money in FTX I feel so terrible for

but we've got to have a discussion

because there's a lot that we can learn

from this situation and I think there

are a lot of implications that come out

of all of this I think the first and

most important thing to say is the most

obvious criminal here is sandbankment

freedom sandbankment freed and his

associates are frauds and criminals they

embezzled according to Bloomberg in a

story this morning up to a staggering

2.2 billion dollar Fortune by embezzling

customer deposits and trying to gamble

with that money only to lose a lot of it

now hopefully a lot of money will

eventually be seized and salvaged by

regulators and hopefully depositors are

made whole at least to some point we

don't know what percentage that's going

to be and a lot of those cards will have

to fall before any other blame or

liability can be be shared we don't know

how much of people's deposits are going

to eventually be returned to people

right hopefully it's a lot but we'll

have to wait and see what will probably

take years to get to the bottom of that

now when it comes to sandbankment Freed

it's worth noting that because he's such

a fraud and criminal he's facing

according to CBS up to 155 years in jail

30 years for bank fraud 20 years for

each account of wire and securities

fraud 10 years for conspiracy to commit

money laundering and more it's pretty

serious but now we've got to ask

ourselves what role do potentially

promoters play if any in the disaster of

FTX

well as I always like to share on

YouTube I like to give my perspective

and I'd like to start with some of my

initial thoughts and these are just my

initial thoughts on uh this this uh a

disaster of FTX

so first things first I think it's worth

looking at the big argument that the uh

attorneys make and the argument is hey

promoters bear responsibility and the

question there I believe should be

challenged with a few scenarios so let's

go through some of these scenarios and I

don't have the conclusions to all of

them but I want to run through some of

them with you to see what do you think

so first things first let's say a real

estate agent I'm a real estate agent and

you call me up and say Hey Kevin I watch

you on YouTube I want to buy a house in

San Antonio and I refer you to an agent

in San Antonio that agent then sells you

a three bedroom two bath house and two

years later that house falls into a

sinkhole and it collapses it gets

destroyed you lost everything nobody got

injured but you lost let's say two

hundred thousand dollars in value that

the insurance did not cover for you so

now you're in the whole two hundred

thousand dollars who is is responsible

for that two hundred thousand dollar

loss well first and foremost the

question would be did you have insurance

enough insurance to cover that sort of

natural disaster right the second

question would be did the Builder

negligently build that property to where

it didn't have a strong enough

Foundation or whatever the third

question would be did somebody else

influence the soils around the area like

did somebody dig a mine under your house

and your house fell into a sinkhole

because of that right what actually

caused the damage to occur in the case

of FTX that's obvious it's Tim bigman

freed and it's Alameda now what about

your home inspectors are your home

inspectors responsible well this is

where we go to more of a maybe level

right were there red flags that the

inspectors could have reasonably picked

up at that time now home inspectors have

access to the property that would be

like Auditors actually having access to

financials at FTX those people

might have some responsibility maybe if

there were red flags evident but if all

the information was fraud and that

couldn't be flushed out then then maybe

it all goes back to FTX right

so back in the example of the house what

about the real estate agent well if the

real estate agent referred you to

vendors and the vendors did their job or

the vendors were capable of doing their

job whether they did their job well or

not does the real estate agent bear any

responsibility for the home falling into

the hole well that gets a little more

blurry right it's sort of like a it's

like a spectrum it's like who's

responsible well the more we go away

from who's truly responsible the less

responsibility there really seems to be

and so I think

then you could take it one step further

and say well

is in this example Uh Kevin responsible

for referring you to an agent and maybe

getting a kickback or a referral fee for

referring you to that agent right maybe

it was a five thousand dollar referral

fee let's just say as an example and the

question is well how how is that

potentially responsible for either a

builder or an inspector being fraudulent

or the actual property being a fraud

well I think that is really what this

lawsuit is trying to get to the bottom

of the lawsuit's trying to say well we

think the person all the way at the end

the people creating the idea of hey go

check out FTX by the way we're sponsored

by FTX the lawsuit is essentially

alleging that those folks the people who

suggested FTX are responsible for fraud

in any way for fraud at FTX that's like

saying the agent who referred you to

another agent is responsible for your

home all the way down chain falling into

a sinkhole it's quite frankly in my

opinion ludicrous and I'll explain in a

different way why I think it's ludicrous

let's say a car Reviewer is paid by

Toyota to test drive a new Toyota and

let's say it's the Toyota Mirai it's

hydrogen and somebody buys that car

drives it and then it explodes and

somebody gets injured is the content

creator who made a review of that car

responsible well I think that ultimately

is the question that everybody is asking

at what point is somebody's opinion on a

good or a service enough to make them

liable for that good or service and I

think this is where it's useful to look

at the relationship between somebody

who's sharing an opinion and an idea

and somebody who is hired to perform a

specific goal if you need legal advice

you might hire an attorney to write you

an LLC it might be my opinion as not

legal advice that it's a good idea to

make sure you have good insurance for

your property an umbrella insurance

policy and hey maybe you should look

into getting an LLC but if you then set

up an LLC and you didn't know there

would be a bunch of fees that would come

with that does that make me liable no of

course not because ultimately you took

an idea whether I'm paid by an LLC

forming company or not you're taking an

idea to form an LLC now it's incumbent

upon the individual to take

responsibility and find somebody who can

give them actual professional advice

that's called doing your due diligence

now you can do your due diligence by

hiring your own personal financial

advisor your own attorney on a retainer

your own doctor your own surgeon these

are people that you're hiring to

specifically help you and so for example

when I hear tax suggestions online and

somebody says hey you should do you

should form an S corp or you should form

a C Corp or whatever I don't I hold them

accountable for what I end up doing with

that sort of idea I take that idea and I

go to the professionals who surround me

and I say hey what do you think about

this idea because those professionals

are hired to give me specifically advice

and I think that's a big differentiation

is at what point does sort of the

promotion of an idea or a suggestion

paid or unpaid rise to the level of

actually being personalized advice and

in my opinion it doesn't in my opinion

at no point does me saying I think oil

is going down and it's a good short rise

to the level of personal financial

advice at no point does me saying hey

I'm investing in something rise to the

level of personalized Financial advice

personalized Financial advice is when

somebody signs a contract with a

financial advisor and says hey I am

paying you specifically to advise on my

portfolio and by signing that contract

now the other person is taking the

fiduciary obligation of providing the

best responsibility and service to that

person for their case and see that I

think is the big difference here is when

people who are content creators are

sharing ideas and perspectives they're

doing just that they're not giving you

personalized insights they're giving you

ideas and perspectives and the reality

is people have to put on their big boy

pants and realize that if you make a

decision because of something you heard

online that's your responsibility I

heard investing in Block five was a

great idea and guess what I lost all my

money investing in Block fi that I put

into it I put 420 000 in a block fight

and I lost every penny of it with fees

it was probably closer to four hundred

thirty three thousand dollars and guess

what did I call Anthony pompliano and go

hey man you owe me all my money back

because you put that fund together no

I'm a big boy I know that somebody can

make a suggestion somebody may even make

money off of that suggestion somebody

may even be able to facilitate that

process to make that happen to make it

easier for me to invest in FDA in a

block file never invest in the FTX uh

but does that make that person liable

well in my opinion no you put on your

big boy pants you conduct your own due

diligence and you have to take

responsibility for your own actions if

somebody ignored all of the warnings

that a YouTuber specifically myself have

given about stable coins not your keys

not your crypto ultimately that's on

them I've always been a believer that

crypto is speculative and short of

Regulation I think it it should have a

very tiny portion of someone's portfolio

and if somebody chooses to engage in

crypto that is on them now obviously in

hindsight FDX was a scam it was a fraud

did we know that up front of course not

of course not so while it's unfortunate

that and now my insurance company is

going to have to deal with this and I

feel bad for them and I'll make sure I

do whatever I can to make sure my

insurance company is aided in this

process I think it would be very

devastating for any dime of obligation

to come out of this lawsuit not only

because well I am slightly biased but

I'm also limited because of insurance

highly but also because it would totally

change this like the entire social media

landscape it would basically say if you

make an opinion and you have followers

you're liable for that opinion

or another example if you promote a

product that you're paid for like if I

say hey man I really love these

headphones I think they're great and I

get paid a hundred dollars every time I

say that and then somebody puts this on

and goes in a pool and Gets Zapped do I

all of a sudden become responsible for

that well obviously my opinion is no but

this would be a massive massive rewrite

of social media uh and really just

freedom of speech uh I think as long as

advertisements are properly disclosed

it's totally fair for something to be an

advertisement now don't get me wrong I

do think it is incumbent upon the entire

industry to be more uh diligent in

making sure that items or products or

goods or services that are promoted are

the best possible but that still doesn't

rise to the level of making someone a

personal advisor for somebody else

they're not a fiduciary they're not

under a personal contractual

relationship with somebody so to put it

in English I think ultimately people

have to put on their big boy pants

there's not even an individual who's

filing this lawsuit it's just a group of

attorneys trying to you know get

attention or whatever it is I mean you

know that's what attorneys do can I

blame those attorneys who are probably

going to watch every minute of this

video seven times no I I don't blame

those attorneys ultimately you get your

law degree and then you find stuff to do

and honestly it's going to be quite

interesting like there's one one thing I

can guarantee much like Elon Musk says

this will be entertaining because there

hasn't been a situation like this before

where the role of a promoter has come

into question obviously I have the POV

that in no way does the role of a

promoter rise to the level of a

fiduciary real estate agent financial

advisor doctor lawyer or otherwise of

course not

but I guess we'll see so I don't know

those are just my thoughts I'm curious

to hear everybody else's thoughts those

are some of my initial thoughts

obviously again I feel bad for everybody

who is affected I do think there should

be some kind of Creator Fund in the

future uh where some of uh some of uh

the creators who want to participate

contribute as sort of like a charity to

provide uh some uh money for people who

lost money but that would be as Charity

not out of requirement not because they

have to or promoters did something wrong

solely as a gesture of good faith I

agree with that and I would lead the

effort for something like that you know

that would then all of a sudden change

the game entirely for every realtor as

an example hey man who do you recommend

as a property manager oh sorry can't

make a recommendation to you because I

can't guarantee their results why does a

promoter have to guarantee the results

of something they're promoting the

results of something they're promoting

should be guaranteed by the company

itself that's providing the good or the

service

not the promoter a promoter is just a a

face somebody who can share an idea or a

perspective that is then subject to the

review of the individual so I do think

they'll probably be sort of a new wake

up of a lot of hate and and drama uh

from very uh probably predominantly

younger and loud screaming individuals

around this uh who probably didn't even

lose a dime in FTX to the people who

actually lost money in FTX I feel

terrible but quite frankly I think most

of the people who lost money in FTX know

deep down inside

it's on FTX it's not on promoters and to

the attorneys who are looking for

something to do

I don't blame them I I mean I I think

they're wrong and I think they're going

to lose but the thing is attorneys

generally don't get evaluated based on

all the cases they lost they get

evaluated based on the cases they won so

the American legal system is set up in

such a way that hey more at bats you

know just keep swinging the bat

so obviously in this case I think it's

ludicrous but we'll take it from there