Jimmy Fallon and a bunch of other celebs are getting sued for shilling their expensive monkey pictures
Gwyneth Paltrow, Justin Bieber, Madonna, and more are accused of promoting Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs without disclosing payments for endorsements
Aux News Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Justin Bieber, Madonna, and other celebrities who spent a fairly embarrassing chunk of the last few years trying to convince fans that ugly pictures of monkeys were both a) cool and b) a lucrative investment opportunity, are now getting hit with a lawsuit. Specifically—and per THR—a number of famouses have found themselves defendants in a new suit this week that accuses at least some of them of, among other things, failing to disclose a financial stake in a company that facilitates purchases of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, even as they were publicly promoting the brand.
Said suit is being put forward by Adonis Real and Adam Titcher, two Ape buyers who lost money on their purchases, and who are hoping to develop a class-action suit against all involved. Their targets include BAYC parent company Yuga Labs, a number of celebrity promoters who endorsed the brand (Paris Hilton, Diplo, Post Malone, Snoop Dogg, Stephen Curry, Kevin Hart, DJ Khaled, and more are also named as “Promoter Defendants”), and well known music industry manager Guy Oseary, who’s being accused of setting up low-key payments through a company called Moonpay (which many of the named celebs are purportedly investors in) to pay them for their endorsements.
Much of the lawsuit’s focus rests on Oseary, the long-time manager for Madonna (as well as U2, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and more), who’s referred to in the legal docs as “the Fifth Ape.” (Alongside the four founders of Yuga Labs, all also defendants.) Oseary is accused of leveraging his considerable network of contacts—the lawsuit specifically calls out his help in Fallon booking U2 in the first days of the host’s tenure on The Tonight Show—to rope in celebrity investors and promoters to build up the Bored Ape brand.
Highlighting a November 2021 Tonight Show interview with web artist Matt “Beeple” Winkelmann (who’s allegedly in business with Oseary, and also a named defendant in the suit), the lawsuit accuses Fallon of being paid to promote the brand when he talked about getting his own ugly monkey picture through Moonpay, writing that, “Fallon did not disclose that he had a financial interest in MoonPay or that he was likewise financially interested, directly or indirectly, in the increased saleand popularity of Yuga securities.” The lawsuit goes on to allegedly detail a number of other transactions in which celebrities appear to have been paid, either in cryptocurrency or NFTs, in exchange for their endorsements.
A Yuga Labs spokesperson responded to the suit this week, calling the claims “Opportunistic and parasitic. We strongly believe that they are without merit, and look forward to proving as much.” This isn’t the first celebrity-focused NFT/crypto lawsuit to crop up in recent months, as the entire market continues to rest comfortably in the toilet. (Trading of the Bored Ape NFTs has reportedly dropped by 93 percent since its launch.) A number of paid promoters (including Larry David) were recently named as defendants in a suit for promoting crypto exchange FTX.
You can read the full text of the Bored Ape suit over at THR.
135 Comments
Caveat Ape-tor.
Schills would never understand that joke.
You are absolutely right.
That was too brilliant: COTD.
The deals are freshest at Scarlett O’hara’s Caveat Emptorium.
Not sure who I care less about, the rich people dumb enough to shill apes or the morons dumb enough to buy nothing and get an ape jpeg as a receipt.On the balance, I’d hope that any average middle class folks that got grifted out of their savings get some relief but man, how dumb do you gotta BE.
You can despise BOTH, you know.. that’s what I do. I despise the morons who bought into a get rich quick sceheme and I despise the shills like Fallon who participated in ripping people off by making crypto sound amazing on his show during numerous segments and guests discussing it (and was being paid behind the scenes to do so).Hate is not a limited resource – hate both groups. Let it flow through you.
“Hate is not a limited resource“I want a cross stitch if this above my mantle 🙂
I’d love it if one of Fallon’s guests called him out on the air for his shilling.
Maybe bring him on SNL and do it so he can finally make it thru a sketch without breaking.
They’re not going to book someone who would do that. Additionally, the show doesn’t air live. Can be edited, and I’m sure *is* edited. I don’t think anything is going on that show of which he would not approve.
I’ll hate the non-disclosing shill a little more. Schadenfreude for the crypto bros who told me I was behind the times, didn’t understand the new economy, etc. But hate for the shills who actually violated securities law for not disclosing their monetary interest in an objectively lousy investment.
It’s very tempting to blame the people for buying into what is very clearly a scam selling basically URLs… but URLs on the blockchain, when others were shouting from the rooftops that there’s nothing of value there (“It’s about the art*,” cried the masses as they shelled out billions of dollars for procedurally rendered lookalike nonsense). I’m behind this though, because shilling for companies while not disclosing your financial interest is the heinous topping on the scammy cake.*I’m all for outsider art but scribbling something in MS Paint then minting it isn’t art. And those aren’t even the laziest NFTs I’ve seen. People have minted snapshots of themselves which, yay, thanks for destroying the planet for that.
And NFT came out just before the dawn of AI generated art.Now one person could make a 1000 NFT a day using Dall-e.
The vast majority of NFT’s are procedurally generated. No Dall-e required
I’m addicted to AI generated images (I love putting cute animals into turtleneck sweaters) but I’d never even try to mint them as NFTs. It is incredibly easy to fill up a hard drive though.
I’m not aware of anything that’s inherently a scam about the process. It’s an awful, flat-out terrible way to invest money, but as long as there is no internal manipulation and people understand that the only way they can make money is by selling an essentially worthless security for more than they bought it, then it isn’t a scam. But that’s not even what the lawsuit is about. The lawsuit is because Fallon didn’t disclose that he was being paid to promote these NTFs, which is a clear violation of securities law.
“as long as there is no internal manipulation”
I reckon I’d call in a structural engineer if I were you; that’s a load-bearing phrase not rated for that weight.
It’s a Ponzi scheme. The only way to make money is to get in early and hope someone overpays for your blockchain URL.
That’s not a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme is specifically where the broker appears to be making legitimate investment profits, but is actually paying earlier investors with later investors’ capital. Hoping someone will pay more than you did for the junk you bought isn’t fraud, it’s just poor investing.This isn’t what’s happening in this market. NFTs are just inherently worthless assets being traded like any other collectible. No different from tulips, baseball cards, or beanie babies, but with perhaps even less inherent value.
Yeah…no.
I don’t feel sorry for anybody dumb enough to fall for any of the crypto scams. NFTs, FTX, etc. If you lost money in this you deserve every second of misery.
It’s like the Bernie Madoff “victims”; “Oh, we thought our 20% returns were totally legitimate!” Sorry folks. There’s no free lunch…except, ironically for you now that you’re on SNAP.
There is no get rich quick. There is only get broke quick. And every couple of years we have another object lesson in greed and gullibility.
There is get rich quick, except it requires a combination of circumstance and already being rich. Put another way, getting rich is, as a rule, not for poor people.
I disagree that people who got scammed aren’t entitled to justice even if our legal system will ultimately fail to muster it. Yeah, these people bought into something foolish but more than anything, they’re just desperate. I work as a tech so from the moment Bitcoin started being worth anything I’ve had to endure incessant explanations about the blockchain and how NFT’s and crypto were going to change the world. My co-workers would go on about how these genius technocrats are democratizing finance to help everyday people get a piece of the pie or avoid taxes or whatever the fuck. Before that, they talked about getting rich coming up with a hot app. It’s always something, like the lottery or “flipping homes in distress.” There’s always some trick. It has to be a trick because 40 hours a week ain’t cutting it.I get shitting on them. I’m sick of it too. I’m sick of this idea that we’re just one new technology away and then we can consume our way out of climate change or wealth inequality. It’s not just being greedy or gullible. They want to fall for the grift because it buys them hope that they can escape the grind and live in financial security. They may be dipshits, but I get that.
It’s all just variations on the days of the gold rush, when people risked life and limb to strike it rich, meanwhile the ones who actually got rich were the ones selling shovels and gears to the suckers prospecting.
Yeah that is something people forget with Madoff and other scams like his. Most of the people that bought in knew it wasn’t a legit investment. They were just banking on being one of the ones that got in first, got paid and go out. No one ever thinks they are the bottom of the pyramid
if jimmy fallon was promoting get rich quick schemes on multiple episodes without disclosing it was a paid advertisement, that would also be worthy of a lawsuit. that’s what this is about
The issue here is that a celebrity can’t go spouting off about something that they have a financial interest in without disclosing said financial interest.You may not have sympathy for people who got duped by monkey NFTs, but that doesn’t change whether these celeb shills broke the law.
The stupidity and greed of the victims isn’t the issue here. Just because someone is stupid and greedy that doesn’t mean it’s legal or ethical to scam them. It also doesn’t mean that it’s ok to break rules regarding advertising and disclosure (the subject of this article.) If I forget to lock my door, I’ve made a stupid mistake. But that does not make it legal or ethical for someone to enter my house and steal my stuff.
That doesn’t make not disclosing a financial relationship before shilling a product legal.
I’m surprised that the facts behind bayc have not gone mainstream. They are nazis, their logo is a copy of a nazi logo, tons of their stupid apes have nazi stuff on it. Plus they used apes specifically to mock blacks. And nobody seems to care.
We already knew shadow groups, racists, fascists, terrorists and their followers and constituents were buying (and probably created) untraceable, intangible funds. Now they lose. Good. This January should be pretty quiet now that fans of coups can’t secretly fund the next one.
Asserted without a shred of evidence
There’s tons of both discussion and evidence just a search engine query away, if you’re actually interested.Here’s one article out of the very large pile from early on in this year (so there may have been new developments, but I’m not gonna do all the work for you):https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/55223/1/breaking-down-conspiracy-theory-bored-ape-yacht-club-nazi-ties-ryder-ripps
I read that entire article and it was seriously one of the dumbest goddamn things I’ve ever seen. This entire “theory” relies on InfoWars-caliber logical leaps, mental gymnastics, and connecting nonexistent patterns. I’m by no means a defender of NFTs in general or Bored Ape Yacht Club in particular (I assumed the entire thing was a giant scam from the beginning). But the idea that it was really some kind of elaborate secret Nazi code or whatever is fucking idiotic.
…If you believe the bored ape peoples’ own explanations, sure. 🙂
I read that article, and I don’t really have any reason not to believe their explanations. There’s a ‘Pepe Silvia’ style set of conclusions drawn to suggest that it’s secretly some Nazi stuff, and some fairly reasonable sounding explanations for why it might not be Nazi stuff.I think the idea that ‘This is Nazi Stuff’ caught on because of a combination of ‘Fuck these NFT assholes’ and ‘Any time you see a monkey or ape they actually mean black people’. NFTs are nonsense, touted by rip-off artists, and it’s easy to believe the worst about people who seem to be running an obvious scam.
I also read the article in question, and trust me I was definitely ready to be completely on board with these lame NFT peddlers being Nazis, but I was…less than convinced.Not that I think they’re NOT Nazis, but the “evidence” provided was pretty shoddy in the only article I’ve seen. It’s a bunch of “hey, doesn’t this FEEL Nazi-ish?” stuff presented as if it’s incontrovertible proof.The one thing that the article does indicate is that some of the more questionable randomized elements of the Bored Apes, the ones that specifically seem to reference or homage Nazi ideology or racial stereotypes, were apparently not created by the artist originally contracted to make the Bored Ape assets, and were added later by different individuals.But that’s still hardly a smoking gun.
This. Bored Ape (like most NFT crazes) was an obvious pump-and-dump scam, but that doesn’t mean the guys doing it were nazis.
I don’t really care what the Bored Ape peoples’ explanations are, the entire conspiracy theory is ludicrous on its face to begin with. The fact that it seems to have originated from a single blogger who is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with the Bored Ape people over copyright claims is not exactly a ringing endorsement either.
Except apparently there’s a lot of people on the internet who disagree with your opinion, and claim there are clear nazi ties.So again, no it isn’t.
Yes, because we all know how rational and well-informed “a lot of people on the internet” are.
Versus you, apparently, who is perfectly informed, and just know better than all of them? Is that what you’re suggesting?
That’s a load of incoherent nonsense
No it isn’t.
Yes, it really is. It’s the same type of paranoid logic used by conspiracy theorists who dissect the imagery and numeric references on the backs of US currency as “proof” that Founding Fathers were part of the Illuminati or Satanists or whatever. BAYC is just another NFT scam. The guy who wrote that blog about it being an elaborate secret neo-nazi plot is a fucking lunatic with way too much free time on his hands.
Yes it is. It presents a 1987 on a prison uniform as evidence of Nazism. That’s delusional.
Just because you choose to ignore the volumes of evidence that have been shared about this doesnt mean there is no evidence.
Yeah, there’s also “volumes” of “evidence” that the Founding Fathers were satan-worshipping members of the Illuminati and that the pyramids were built by ancient aliens. Crackpot bloggers dissecting minute details of images and making assumptions about their supposed hidden meaning is….. gibberish.
Buddy, there have been entire lengthy articles about the apes being racist, with countless examples. So get fucked with “asserted without evidence”, you absolute know-nothing.The OP’s point is correct – the media, even nerd media, didn’t really pick them up – not, seemingly, because they were wrong – the facts are hard to argue, imagery-wise – but because it would have inevitably meant saying [celeb you like here] was into Nazi shit (albeit likely unknowingly).
Yeah, there’s a lot of that out there, dude.
I recall when we started seeing articles about there apes I got accused of being racist myself when I pointed out that the apes images themselves had a minstrel show quality to them and that it seemed really problematic that it seemed like they were being bought by mostly white shitty internet people. Sounds like my suspicions were correct
“Plus they used apes specifically to mock blacks. And nobody seems to care. ”Nobody cares because nobody thought those NFTs were mocking blacks.We moved to a point where a vast majority of people don’t make this kind of associations, and don’t take seriously people who does.
“We moved to a point where a vast majority of people don’t make this kind of associations, and don’t take seriously people who does.”Sounds like classic white-boy racist bullshit to me. “I’m post-racism, man, so I can do this obviously racist thing because of that!”.
I sincerly hope you grow to realize how stupid this comment is.Best of luck, champ.
I don’t, Care to explain?
Never teach a pig to sing.You waste your time and annoy the pig.
That’s what I thought, you’re just here to insult people while pretending to have moral superiority.
When did I ever insult you, baby dick?
Yup nothing weird going on here.From: gordongoner.com
Who’s this “we?” Assholes?
Just people who can see a monkey with clothes on, and just think “ah look, a monkey with clothes on”.Not saying the intentions of the makers of the NFTs weren’t racists, but since nobody noticed, I guess they failed, and people just saw monkeys with clothes. I don’t understand what’s the problem here? What did I say that was wrong
“We moved to a point where a vast majority of people don’t make this kind of associations, and don’t take seriously people who does.”Asshole.
Go compare some black people to apes to their face and see how they feel about it.
Well, you don’t seem to understand my point. You said this “ Plus they used apes specifically to mock blacks. And nobody seems to care.”I answered that it’s not that nobody cares, it’s that no one and not even Black people thought about it that way. Because if they did, there would have been a shitstorm a long time ago (and rightfully so), and those NFTs wouldn’t have been on national televisions everywhere in the world (also, here is a list of owners of those NFTs https://boardroom.tv/bored-ape-nft-celebrity-owners/ ) So you may be right, I don’t pretend to know the intentions of the makers of those NFTs (but frankly, if you made NFTs to sell them thousands of dollars, you are probably not a good person in the first place), but isn’t that better as a whole that the general public saw it as monkeys dressed as people, and not targeting a specific group.And to be honest, we all look like monkeys, nothing wrong about it, monkeys are awesome, especially orangutans.But yeah go and tell black people how you think these aredepicting them. See how they feel about it. Frankly, I still don’t see it.
Apes have been used for hundreds of years as a way to denigrate blacks, by showing them as less evolved and not human. I guarantee that a lot of black people have looked at these stupid nfts that way, even if you don’t see it like that.
I wonder how many times I have to repeat this, but if black people thought that way, there would have been a public outcry, and prominent black people wouldn’t have bought them.
You’re the one trying to talk in stead of every black person out there, I am telling you that they can talk for themselves, and they obviously did not.
And I personally, agree with them.
There has been a public outcry, juswt not nearly enough of one. Stop trying to diminish the feelings of black people.
I’m not, but you should stop talking for them and inflate those feelings.
If you are going to be a racist shithead, at least be open about it. Defending racist apes while trying to pretend to not be racist just makes you look like a fool, on top of a shithead racist.
I’m not. How’s your ego though?
Whatever you say you racist shithead
“blacks”?
Theres a doc on Tubi called “Feel good man” about Pepe the Frog that’s riveting in its chronicle of losers.
i think it was more of a blatant ripoff of ‘a bathing ape’ than anything else.
This planet needs to get rid of humans
As a human, I’d like to know what’s in this “get rid of humans” plan for me.
Running.Followed by dying tired.Eventually compost.
I think I’ll take my business elsewhere.
That’s a shame.We need the compost.
You won’t have to deal with other shitty humans.
True, but then other shitty humans wouldn’t have to deal with me, and I just can’t give them the satisfaction.
Whoa there, ecofascist. The problem is capitalism, not humans.
Whoa there communist, the problem is neo-aristocrats like Curtis Yarvin and the “dark enlightment” who want to return society to a feudal state before capitalism. Being descended from people who escaped the glorious worker state of Bulgaria in the early 1960s, and as a person who spent summers there in the 1980s when that regime still existed, I think people who think capitalism is the problem have little idea of what the alternative is like. The supposed fix to capitalism was terrible, as was the feudal regimes that preceded it.
Whoa there capitalist, the problem is capitalism. As someone being descended from people in the US, and who lives in the US now, capitalism ain’t working. I don’t know who the fuck Curtis Yarvin is or what he has to do with capitalism and socialism… but our current system ain’t working. Just ask any of the millions of non-property owning, healthcare tied to their employment millennials and zoomers out there who are overworked and underpaid.
And as someone descended from people who escaped Latin America where its democratically-elected left-wing governments have been constantly couped, and its people and resources exploited and killed on behalf of US big business for over a century—ditto.
There’s not just capitalism and communism. We can try a resource based economy.
No it’s just capitalism. Other political and economic systems are corrupt and failed, but capitalism is objectively the most toxic and rapacious.
But go ahead and cheer for the meat grinder down the conveyor belt there, meat.
Uh, Frank might be one of the people running the conveyor belt…..
I couldn’t care less about your Eastern European “my Nazi grandad was a victim of communism” sob stories
Since you brought it up, my grandfather was Jewish and actually in camps run by both the Nazis and the communists (who were antisemitic assholes as well).
Gotta love all the internet randos’ victims of communism family stories!Thank god the Soviets defeated the Nazis.
If you go by what communists said instead of what they did, it sounds great.
You’re conflating *an* alternative with “the alternative” and implying that that there are no *other* alternatives, my guy.
True but who invented capitalism?
Most of us didn’t consent.
A man named John F. Capitalism. Well, he and a small team of troubleshooters did, but he came up with the initial idea so he got to name it.
Get back to the onion field comrade and take your Red Star
The planet doesn’t need to do anything but wait, we humans are pretty adept at getting rid of our own kind.
It’s trying but we keep using science to protect us from everything she can throw at us.
What we need is to educate the ones we have.
Obvious ape sockpuppet.
I think people are missing the point about the lawsuit. It’s not about people following the advice of a random celebrity they trusted. It’s about them finding out that the random celebrity was a paid shill for the product and not genuinely recommending the product.The FTC has rules about this – it’s why you see celebrities having to disclose that they have been paid to endorse products on social media, as paraphrased below: The Federal Trade Commission has determined that the following acts or practices in the
use of endorsements and testimonials are deceptive or unfair and are unlawful under Section 5 of
the Federal Trade Commission Act. • It is an unfair or deceptive trade practice to fail to disclose a connection between an
endorser and the seller of an advertised product or service, if such a connection might
materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement and if the connection
would not be reasonably expected by consumersSo to me the lawsuit isn’t frivilous or stupid even if the decision to buy NFTs off of advice from your favorite talk show host or artist is.
This. I’ve also heard reports about certain celebs shilling for crypto, who claimed publicly that they were invested in it, and therefore victims too, but in reality, their exposure was minimal, like $1000 just to claim they technically invested, but in reality, they had no real vested interest in the product they were stumping for, and got paid in cash.
The suit isn’t frivolous at all, but it is very much a case of whoever loses we all win. Let them eat each other.
I remember when Jimmy Fallon couldn’t shut up about his stupid apes and tried to get a bunch of celebrities to shill for them on his show, and it seemed obvious everyone was getting paid, because NOBODY looked like they actually gave a shit about it, Fallon included. It was just the most cue-card-reading waste of air time to promote these dumb monkey JPGs.While their demeanor might have made it obvious they were paid to do it, without disclosing that to the public, they definitely broke the law.
If I was on the jury, I wouldn’t give the plaintiffs a dime. They DESERVE to have gotten took.Everyone who has been suckered into believing there’s something magically unique about some image/whatever linked to a crypto-coin blockchain number and thus creating an NFT. How by buying that blockchain number somehow contributes value to the image/whatever. It DOES NOT because every NFT customer has been buying those blockchain numbers—period. The blockchain link means nothing in terms of value. And now the money spent on valueless blockchain links has disappeared. That’s too damn bad, “genius” NFT buyers.Read up on Tulip Mania. Don’t be so ignorant going through life.
That Jimmy Fallon barely-disguised informercial was super embarrassing. Like even for him, it was a cringey low.
“…two Ape buyers who lost money on their purchases…”Wait, how is that even possible? The tokens they bought were NON-FUNGIBLE! Everybody knows that only FUNGIBLE (or non-NON-FUNGIBLE) stuff can decrease in value. The beauty of NON-FUNGIBLE thingies is that they can only increase in price. Forever.That’s just basic science & economics. Duh!
They got really funged in that deal.
Part of me wants to say “lol if you’re dumb enough to invest in apes you deserve what you get” but frankly if this can force a lot of money out of Jimmy Fallon and the BAYC people then more power to them.
Part of you is victim blaming.
Both parts of you have merit.
A Yuga Labs spokesperson responded to the suit this week, calling the
claims “Opportunistic and parasitic. We strongly believe that they are
without merit”
The most offensive thing about all this?MONKEYS ARE NOT APES!
Everyone knows they’re made out of people … PEOPLE!!!
Monkeys are not made out of people, they do not taste like each other.
I look forward to discovery because if “Adonis Real” is actually someone’s name, it should constitute an automatic judgement in their favour.
-Highoncoughsyrup, J.D.
Technically, you don’t lose money until you sell it. Theoretically you can hold on for 30 years until someone makes a museum of the worst decisions of this century and you can sell it to them.
By that point you’d be selling a link to “image not found”
Correction: a non fungible link to “image not found”!
I secretly hope that someone will figure out how to buy the hosting space for all those apes and just replace them all with dick pics.
But why shill these? These people make millions already.
“A number of famouses”Oh, fuck off.
None of these are celebrities I really respect. But it’s hard to root for anyone who bought NFTs. So.I’ll shed tears when Keanu Reeves or Elijah Wood or Martha Plimpton have sinned.
All of these are celebrities who if they were credibly accused of being gropey or rapey, it would not change or affect my feelings toward their bodies of work.
Keanu Reeves, who still walks among us?
“…two Ape buyers who lost money on their purchases…” see, i feel sorry for those poor primates – they need their money for bananas.
I’m normally against the death penalty, however…
When reached for comment, Fallon stated:
“HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA, (slaps knee) HAHAHAHAHAHA HA HA HA (wipes tears) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HA!
Payola is alive and well and shilling for Ponzi schemes. Failure to disclose compensation for promotion is a legitimate cause of action and should concern all of the defendants because the plaintiffs won’t accept payment in NFTs or crypto. The plaintiffs were still stupid for investing in this tomfoolery but if preponderance of evidence shows they were lied to they can still profit NFT makes a tiny bit of sense as a tool to establish provenance of a significant digital artifact like “the first tweet” or the original disaster girl pic (which she sold for most of the cost if college). They make no sense as a medium of exchange or investment vehicle.
Good! I hope this lawsuit buries them all! I don’t even care about the details!
The news will just not stop providing me with stories that make me want to use the Norm Macdonald “Everyone involved in this story should die” reaction image.
Too bad Norm died.