A report was made on behalf of users of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, and Cristiano Ronaldo was named in it.

The Al-Nassr star signed a marketing deal with the exchange in June 2022, after the Financial Conduct Authority called the company a “significant risk” to customers. The exchange later created a line of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) with his help.

When they came out in November of that year, fans were angry that the player had invited fans to “join his Web3 community.” One fan even asked, “Could his reputation fall any lower? ”

Even though Ronaldo is still working with the company as of November 28, the people who filed the lawsuit said that the five-time Ballon d’Or winner was “engaged in the mass solicitation of investments in unregistered securities” because of his work with Binance.

An official lawsuit was sent to the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami on Tuesday. It says that Ronaldo “promoted, assisted in, and/or actively participated in the offer and sale of unregistered securities in coordination with Binance.”

The lawsuit goes on to say that users were more likely to invest in the allegedly illegal securities and Binance’s crypto yield program after coming to the platform to protect the forward’s NFTs.

The complaint says Ronaldo is running “a sustained and aggressive promotion and advertising campaign for Binance.” The plaintiffs say Ronaldo’s popularity, with 110.3 million X (formerly Twitter) followers and another 613 million Instagram followers, helped Binance get more users.

According to the report, 500% more people searched for the company in the week after the first sale of Ronaldo’s NFTs, when all the top NFTs were gone.

 

The lawsuit also says that the player should have told the authorities about any funds he or she got to promote cryptocurrencies as a “paid spokesman,” as required by rules set by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

 

Aside from this class action suit, Binance is in the middle of a huge legal fight. Their founder, Changpeng Zhao, has already admitted to breaking US Anti-Money Laundering rules and quit the business.

 

As part of the plea deal, the company will pay a settlement of $4.3billion (£3.39bn). Zhao could spend more than a year in jail while the trial goes on.

 

According to Reuters, Binance stopped taking UK users in October because of laws that make it hard for foreign digital asset companies to advertise.

Ronaldo didn’t seem to care about the case being filed on Tuesday, as he shared a video posted by Binance of himself getting ready for the camera.

His comment said, “Cooking something up with Binance.”

 

Last week, Ronaldo didn’t get into any more legal problem in the US because a court turned down an appeal from a woman who said Ronaldo raped her in 2010.

 

In June 2022, a federal judge threw out the case. Kathryn Mayorga wanted to change that decision and restart the civil action she made in 2018. However, her request was denied and the case was thrown out with prejudice.

 

Because of this, Mayorga will not be able to file the case again.