Mark Cuban To Be Deposed Next Month in Voyager ‘Ponzi’ Suit

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban will be deposed with two employees as he defends against a lawsuit likening Voyager to a Ponzi scheme

article-image

DFree/Shutterstock.com, modified by Blockworks

share

“Shark Tank” billionaire Mark Cuban is set to be deposed as part of a class-action lawsuit over his role in promoting failed crypto lender Voyager to millions of Americans.

A number of Voyager users filed the lawsuit in August, claiming both Cuban and Voyager CEO Steve Ehrlich encouraged them to invest with the alleged “deceptive” platform, which plaintiffs claim was a “massive Ponzi scheme.”

A deposition refers to the testimony of an individual conducted outside of court as part of the discovery process conducted prior to a trial. 

Cuban had requested a US judge to split the deposition process into two sessions. But a court filing dated Jan. 9 showed US magistrate judge Lisette Reid ordered him to do it in one sitting. He is now scheduled to be deposed in Dallas, Texas on Feb. 2.

The judge also ordered Pierce Robertson, Rachel Gold and Sanford Gold, three plaintiffs who brought the suit forward, to be deposed between Jan. 9 and Jan. 24.

Cuban’s professional basketball team the Dallas Mavericks was also named in the suit. Two team execs for corporate partnerships, Ryan Mackey and Kyle Tapply, will also be deposed before Feb. 23.

“Cuban and Ehrlich, as will be explained, went to great lengths to use their experience as investors to dupe millions of Americans into investing — in many cases, their life savings — into the Deceptive Voyager Platform,” the lawsuit read.

“As a result, over 3.5 million Americans have now all but lost over $5 billion in cryptocurrency assets.”

The suit further alleged that public support of Voyager by the Dallas Mavericks and Cuban showed they were targeting amateur investors with misleading promises of making large profits.

Cuban and Voyager didn’t return Blockworks’ requests for comment by press time. Voyager filed for bankruptcy in July after crumpling under exposure to now-defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

recent research

Research Report Templates (1).png

Research

Solana Mobile is a highly ambitious foray into the mobile consumer hardware market, seeking to open up a crypto-native distribution channel for mobile-first applications. The market for Solana Mobile devices has demonstrated a phenomenon whereby external market actors (e.g. Solana-native projects) continuously underwrite subsidies to Mobile consumers. The value of these subsidies, coming in the form of airdrops, trial programs, and exclusive NFT mints, have consistently covered the cost of the phone and generated positive returns for consumers. Given this trend in subsidies, the unit economics in the market for Mobile devices, and the initial growth rate and trajectory of sales, it should be expected that Solana mobile can clear 1M to 10M units over the coming years. As more devices circulate amongst users, Solana Mobile presents a promising venue for the emergence of killer-applications uniquely enabled by this mobile-first, crypto-native distribution channel.

article-image

Analysts are looking ahead to August, a historically volatile month made more interesting this year by the US presidential election

article-image

Plus, a look into Lighting Labs’ newest feature

article-image

Crypto’s Wild West era is over — it’s time to embrace regulation to secure the future of digital assets

article-image

Plus, Solana has now surpassed Ethereum in trailing 30-day decentralized exchange volume

article-image

Polymarket betters say Kamala Harris has better odds than Biden of winning against Trump