Topline
Supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who along with ex-husband Tom Brady was a major equity holder in now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange firm FTX, said in an interview with Vanity Fair published Wednesday she was “blindsided” by the bank’s collapse and had believed it to be a sound investment
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Key Facts
Vanity Fair reported the couple had “invested millions in” FTX, but how much they actually put into the exchange is still unreported.
Bündchen said she believed FTX to be a “sound and great thing based on what my financial advisers told me,” though she could not discuss specifics because of legal reasons.
She said she is “no different than everyone else that trusted the hype.”
Bündchen called the collapse of FTX “terrible” and said she is “so sorry for all of us that this happened, and I just pray that justice gets made.”
Big Number
$25 million. That’s how much Bündchen’s stake in FTX was estimated to be worth before the company’s downfall, Forbes previously reported. Brady’s was worth an estimated $45 million.
Key Background
Bündchen and Brady were married in 2009. The couple has two children together, Benjamin and Vivian—they also co-parent Brady’s son Jack from a previous relationship. They faced months of rumors about a potential split—with speculators claiming Bündchen was unhappy with Brady’s return to the NFL after a brief retirement—before announcing in October they had finalized their divorce. FTX was worth an estimated $32 billion before it filed for bankruptcy in November. Since then, three executives associated with the company and its sister firm Almeda research had pleaded guilty in connection to a scheme to defraud investors, allegedly led by FTX’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Known by the moniker SBF, Bankman-Fried has been accused of diverting billions of dollars in customer money from FTX into Almeda to cover expenses. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to eight criminal counts, with charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. A class action suit filed in November named Bündchen and Brady as defendants, along with other celebrity spokespeople, for promoting the firm—it’s not clear if the suit is still active.
Further Reading
FTX Executive Nishad Singh Pleads Guilty In Fraud Probe (Forbes)
Tom Brady And Gisele Bündchen Finalize Divorce (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/03/22/gisele-bndchen-says-she-was-blindsided-by-terrible-ftx-collapse/