“I know about lying because I do it for a living” – ‘The OC’ star Ben McKenzie rips Tom Brady, who endorsed FTX after founder’s arrest
Tom Brady has found himself in the midst of one of the biggest financial crashes in U.S. history. As a spokesperson for FTX, Brady has become the face of the failed cryptocurrency brand.
This week, as the founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested on felony charges, Congress began investigating cryptocurrency and the failure of an economic branch that millions of Americans bought into.
Actor Ben McKenzie, who is well known for his role as Ryan Atwood on the primetime drama "The OC," has been outspoken about the cryptocurrency craze. McKenzie has a degree in Economics and has even written a book called "Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud." McKenzie testified against the cryptocurrency market in a Senate hearing this week.
"I know about lying because I do it for a living. As an actor, you're aware of what people are doing and how they're using language."
"I know about lying because I do it for a living. As an actor, you're aware of what people are doing and how they're using language."
'The OC' star and outspoken cryptocurrency critic @ben_mckenzie joins @CNNThisMorning on the collapse of FTX: https://t.co/O7brVlLNHz
McKenzie, who was a guest on CNN on Thursday morning, told Kaitlin Collins that, as an actor, he knows what lying looks like because he does it for a living. He said these cryptocurrency companies use targeted language to get people to invest in their brands. He referred to cryptocurrency as one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history because people invested their money in something they were never going to see a return on.
Tom Brady's FTX scandal explained
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, as well as other high-profile professional athletes, including NBA champion Stephen Curry, invested millions of dollars in the FTX cryptocurrency.
A few weeks ago, FTX announced that it was going bankrupt, with millions of people losing significant amounts of money. The CEO and founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, created this company in April 2019. As with other cryptocurrency brands, it saw a huge increase in investors during the COVID-19 pandemic, with millions of people believing they were making good investments for the future. Professional athletes such as Brady and Curry endorsed the company and even invested millions of their own money. Brady's ex-wife, Gisele Bundchen, was also a spokesperson for the company and appeared in a commercial for FTX with the quarterback.
Tom Brady invested about $45 million, and Bundchen invested about $25 million in cryptocurrency.
Bankman-Fried's net worth reached over $20 billion in 2022, but in September, FTX started to crash, causing the founder to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bankman-Fried is accused of transferring over $4 billion from FTX funds into the Alameda Research Company, a trading firm that he co-founded, without telling any of the investors about the move. On November 11, Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO, and Jon J. Ray III was appointed due to his experience with helping investors get back some of their lost funds. When Ray took over, he was appalled by the lack of bookkeeping that FTX had. He said that they had no real records of investor transactions.
Patriots fan sues his idol Tom Brady after investing $30K in FTX trib.al/ZE3eyqZ https://t.co/JuqNSSs9Ty
On December 11, 2022, Bankman-Fried was arrested at his home in the Bahamas. The Southern District of New York charged Bankman-Fried with wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud conspiracy, and money laundering.
He is still in the Bahamas and is awaiting extradition back to the United States, which may take several months.