Heat’s Jimmy Butler, YouTube influencer will pay $340,000 to resolve cryptocurrency claims
Miami Heat basketball star Jimmy Butler and YouTube influencer Ben Armstrong have agreed to pay $340,000 to settle a lawsuit accusing them of helping deceive investors into buying unregistered securities from Binance Holdings Limited, which operates the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Armstrong and Butler denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement, according to court records.
U.S. District Judge Roy Altman will now decide whether to preliminarily approve the agreement, which was filed in Miami federal court on Monday. The deal was reached after months of talks involving a mediator, former Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman.
Altman will then consider signing off on the settlement at a final hearing where the buyers of Binance’s unregistered securities will have the opportunity to voice their opinion of the agreement.
The lawsuit was filed last year against Butler and Armstrong, who goes by the name BitBoy Crypto, as well as Binance and co-founder Changpeng Zhao. The suit accused them of luring customers into buying cryptocurrencies and tokens, including Binance’s native BNB token, which were actually unregistered securities in violation of US law.
Last year, Binance Holdings Limited and Zhao pleaded guilty to anti-money laundering and U.S. sanctions violations in a $4 million settlement with the Justice Department that allows the crypto exchange Binance.com to continue operating.
Aventura firm guilty of wire fraud
Earlier this month, Austin Michael Taylor, the founder of the cryptocurrency project CluCoin and owner of CLU LLC, an Aventura-based company, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in Miami federal court.
Taylor, 40, faces up to 20 years in prison at his sentencing on Oct. 31.
He was accused of transferring $1,140,000 in CluCoin investor funds to his personal account while using his large social media following to generate interest in a digital token he named “CLU.”
Prosecutors said Taylor promoted CLU’s Initial Coin Offering at a fundraising event where investors exchange established cryptocurrencies for a new digital token. They said Taylor produced a white paper to attract investors, promoting the Initial Coin Offering’s charitable focus.
Taylor launched CluCoin in 2021 and later redirected it toward new ventures, including non-fungible tokens, a computer game, and a metaverse platform, according to prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami and the Justice Department in Washington.
