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(Bloomberg) — Russia and North Korea appear to have resumed trade over a rail link that had been suspended for almost three years due Covid-19, according to satellite imagery, in the latest sign of warming ties between the neighbors.

Goods were delivered from Russia to North Korea in late November and early December, 38 North said in report published late Monday. Unloaded cargo was spotted at least twice on the North Korean side and expanded freight handling at a station there suggested preparation for greater volume, the group said.

“Based on our observations, it appears the resumption of trade between Russia and North Korea is well underway,” 38 North said, calling it “another sign of North Korea’s slow opening-up to the world as the Covid-19 pandemic lessens.”

Any trade between the long-time partners could raise concerns of international sanctions violations, since North Korea is facing punishment for its pursuit of nuclear weapons and Russia has been hit with measures over its invasion of Ukraine. The link had been closed in February 2020 when Kim Jong Un sealed his borders against the emerging Covid-19 threat. 

The US has accused North Korea of selling artillery rounds to Russia to help Vladimir Putin’s war efforts. While Pyongyang has denied the accusations as groundless, it has lauded the Russian president and been one of the few countries that have recognized the Kremlin-controlled “People’s Republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

North Korea has one of the world’s largest artillery forces and been stockpiling shells for decades. Any arms sales would mark a reversal in roles between the neighbors, as North Korea for decades relied on weapons from its former benefactor, the Soviet Union. 

An arms sale however could potentially give Kim’s regime much-needed cash, oil, and perhaps even technology to help with its nuclear weapons program. The rail link had been closed since early 2020 and 38 North previously reported that Kim’s regime sent a three-car train across it in early November. 

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(Bloomberg) — Bahamas government officials worked closely with Sam Bankman-Fried and tried to help him regain access to key computer systems of bankrupt FTX Trading, lawyers for FTX said in a court filing before the failed crypto magnate was arrested on Monday.

Before Bankman-Fried was blocked from FTX systems, the Bahamas asked him to mint new digital coins worth hundreds of millions of dollars and then transfer those tokens to the control of island officials, according to the legal team in control of FTX.

The accusations escalate a battle between an American team of restructuring executives trying to collect FTX assets to repay creditors, and officials in the Bahamas. Liquidators in the island nation have asked a US judge for access to FTX data controlled by their American counterparts. 

“It is a request for live, dynamic access that would be provided immediately to the government of the Bahamas and to Messrs. Samuel Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang, who are located in the Bahamas and working closely with Bahamian officials,” American lawyers wrote in a court filing Tuesday. Wang is an FTX co-founder.

Bankman-Fried and Wang didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Bankman-Fried was arrested Monday in the Bahamas after the US filed criminal charges against him. 

Bahamas Withdrawals

In attempting to paint a portrait of coziness between Bankman-Fried and Bahamas authorities, the company’s US lawyers called out a Nov. 9 email — just days before the bankruptcy — in which Bankman-Fried said he would be “more than happy” to open up withdrawals for all Bahamanian customers, allowing them to be made whole.

“It’s your call whether you want us to do this — but we are more than happy to and would consider it the very least of our duty to the country, and could open it up immediately if you reply saying you want us to,” Bankman-Fried wrote, according to court papers.

The next day, $100 million began leaving the platform, according to FTX’s US lawyers.

The fall of Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire set off investigations by federal prosecutors, regulators and the FTX bankruptcy team. Bankman-Fried gave up control of FTX to restructuring expert John J. Ray III and a team of lawyers and financial advisers who are poring over the company’s books in search of cash, cryptocurrency and assets that could be sold to help repay creditors. 

Read more: FTX Collapse Ensnares Creditors Big and Small All Over the World

Days after FTX put about 100 units into bankruptcy in Wilmington, Delaware, the company’s American restructuring team accused the Bahamian government of meddling in the US reorganization effort. Bahamas officials are “responsible for directing unauthorized access” to FTX systems in order to get control of digital assets under the supervision of a US court, American lawyers said in a court filing, citing social media posts and text messages from Bankman-Fried and others.

While Ray and his team tried to get control of FTX’s computer systems, they watched as someone minted new coins. Eventually, they concluded it was Bankman-Fried and Wang working at the behest of the Bahamas. 

Liquidation Fight

The FTX lawyers also complained about legal maneuvers by Bahamas liquidators to expand the scope of their authority beyond the single FTX unit currently being liquidated by a Bahamian court. The liquidators have asked the US judge to force their American counterparts to give Bahamian lawyers access to trading platform data, email records and other information stored on FTX systems.

A lawyer for the Bahamas liquidator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The two sides will also square off in federal court in January over how much deference the US team must give to the case in the Bahamas.

Read more: Bahamas Probes FTX Local Clients’ Withdrawals During Implosion

In US bankruptcy courts, creditors are repaid based on the priority of their debt, not their nationality. When multinational corporations file bankruptcy in the US, a federal judge usually has authority to distribute all of the company’s assets, once a final reorganization plan is approved. Sometimes, a company’s assets are so closely tied to debt owed to foreign creditors, that additional insolvency cases are filed outside the US.

When that happens, international legal fights can drag on for years, delaying payment to creditors.

The case is FTX Trading Ltd., 22-11068, US. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. 

–With assistance from Joanna Ossinger.

(Updates with Bankman-Fried arrest in fifth paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) —

UK manufacturers are sitting on almost £24 billion ($29 billion) worth of unfinished goods that can’t be sold because of persistent supply shortages, a survey from Barclays Plc showed.

The poll showed 72% of the 631 companies in Britain are facing the inventory logjam tied to a lack of components, materials or ingredients. Steel and other metal products are the biggest category of products awaiting completion, followed by food and beverage, plastics, and electronics, the late-October survey released Tuesday showed.

The reasons cited for the continued strains include the pandemic, Brexit, China’s Covid-19 lockdowns, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the pound’s weakness. Given the backlog at factories, British households already suffering under crushing inflation may face even more cost-of-living pressures. 

“Consumers may not feel the impact of these problems yet, since stockpiling action by retailers is ensuring a continued flow of goods to the shelves,” the report stated. “However, if the supply-chain issues persist for manufacturers, this could ultimately affect end-buyers.”

Almost 60% of the respondents said they’re still facing supply-chain challenges, and higher energy, raw-material and transportation costs are magnifying the difficulties, the survey showed. Two-thirds expected an improvement over the next six months, while 30% foresee little change, it showed.

Despite the difficult environment, labor is still in short supply, as the survey showed manufacturers are seeking to fill more than 250,000 openings, amounting to 14% of the workforce.

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(Bloomberg) — Sony Group Corp. led a big jump in video-game hardware sales in the US last month, in the latest sign of improving PlayStation 5 supply.

The Tokyo-based entertainment giant drove a 45% spurt in US games hardware sales to $1.3 billion in November, according to the NPD Group. Back home in Japan, the company’s in-demand console can now be purchased with fewer preconditions from retailers, while second-hand outlets are offering less to resellers. Domestic market tracker Famitsu has also registered an uptick in PS5 sales.

“Strong hardware performance in the month of November was due primarily to a significant increase in PlayStation 5 volume when compared to a year ago,” said NPD analyst Mat Piscatella. “PlayStation 5 was November’s best-selling hardware platform in both unit and dollar sales, while Nintendo Switch ranked 2nd across both measures.”

Sony said in early November that shortages of PlayStation 5 consoles are easing as Covid-related chip and logistics snarls end. The company is assembling machines at a faster rate than it had planned and will make more toward the year-end shopping season, Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki said at its most recent earnings call.

Sony Jumps After Hiking Outlook and PlayStation Expectations

Supply of the PS5 has chronically lagged demand since its launch two years ago, and only now is its availability normalizing. Some Japanese retailers are now processing orders and purchases of the console without requiring a store-issued credit card. Noah Shop, one of the country’s bigger electronics resellers, has reduced the amount it offers for second-hand PS5 models to 72,000 yen ($526). The retail price for the console starts at 49,478 yen in Japan when purchased new.

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(Bloomberg) — Oracle Corp. reported quarterly sales that exceeded analysts’ estimates on a strong effort from its Cerner digital health records unit, overcoming softer demand for information technology services in a choppy economy.

Sales increased 18% to $12.3 billion in the period ended Nov. 30, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $12 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit, excluding some items, was $1.21 a share, which included a hit of 9 cents from currency fluctuations. Analysts, on average, projected $1.18 a share. 

Cloud revenue — the highly watched segment that Oracle has been trying to expand — rose 43% to $3.8 billion in the fiscal second quarter, the Austin, Texas-based company said Monday in a statement. The segment produced 45% year-over-year growth in the prior quarter. 

The software giant, known for its database technology, sells enterprise software applications that can be used over the internet. The company also has been striving to increase its business of renting computing power and storage, which is a market called cloud infrastructure that is led by Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. At an analyst day in October, Oracle forecast a better-than-expected $65 billion in annual revenue by the 2026 fiscal year, fueled by the cloud effort.

The company spent $2.4 billion toward capital expenditures in the quarter, primarily focused on data centers needed to meet cloud demand, Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz said on a conference call after the results. Catz said she expects to continue to invest at that level for the “next few quarters.” 

Last week, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Alphabet Inc.’s Google won a share of a $9 billion Department of Defense contract for cloud services. 

Oracle also is relying on its acquisition of Cerner, which was completed in June, to build inroads in health care, an industry that has been slow to move data technology to the web. Cerner generated $1.5 billion in the quarter, Oracle said.

“Since the acquisition, Cerner has contributed to Oracle’s growth — and Oracle has helped Cerner improve its technology,” Chairman Larry Ellison said in the statement. “But we are just beginning our mission to modernize health care information systems.”  

In a note before the results were announced, Anurag Rana, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, expected the digital medical records unit “might more than offset any economic-related weakness.”

Sales of the Fusion application for managing corporate finances rose 23% in the period, compared with 33% last quarter. Revenue from NetSuite’s enterprise planning tools, targeted to small- and midsize businesses, increased 25%, compared with 27% last quarter.

On the call, Catz said revenue will increase 17% to 19% in the current quarter, which ends in February. Analysts, on average, projected 17% growth to $12.3 billion. Earnings per share will be as much as $1.21, including a negative impact of 6 cents a share from currency fluctuations, she said. Analysts estimated $1.24 a share. 

The CEO repeated her forecast from September that Oracle’s fiscal-year cloud sales, excluding Cerner’s contribution, would increase 30% on a constant currency basis. The cloud business growth will “exceed 30%” including Cerner, she said. 

The stock gained about 2% in extended trading after closing at $81.28 in New York. Oracle has been one of the best performing tech stocks in recent months. The shares have jumped 33% since the end of September, compared with a 12% rise in the S&P 500 Information Technology Index.

–With assistance from Ian King.

(Updates with comments from CEO beginning in the fifth paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) — After spending the past two weeks participating in media interviews, former FTX Chief Executive Officer Sam Bankman-Fried is being more selective when it comes to appearing before Congress to discuss the collapse of his cryptocurrency empire. 

Bankman-Fried said Monday during a Twitter Space interview that he is “currently not scheduled” to attend the Senate Banking Committee’s hearing on Dec. 14, though he will testify at a separate hearing by a House panel a day earlier.   

Senate Banking Committee lawmakers said in a statement later Monday that Bankman-Fried declined to testify and called the decision “an unprecedented abdication of accountability.” His counsel has stated that “they are unwilling to accept service of a subpoena,” the statement said.

Earlier, the disgraced crypto mogul said he is “open and willing” to having a conversation with the chair of the Senate committee about the hearing if his attendance is deemed important, Bankman-Fried said during the Twitter Space interview. Bankman-Fried missed a deadline last week set by the Senate committee for a response to a request to testify. 

Bankman-Fried, who is in the Bahamas, confirmed he will attend the Tuesday hearing by the House Financial Services Committee remotely. He is listed as a witness alongside current FTX CEO John J. Ray III, according to a media advisory from the committee. Starting at 10 a.m. in Washington, the House hearing will be split into two parts, each featuring one of the men. 

 

Ray in remarks prepared for the House hearing blamed FTX’s collapse on the failures of its previous leaders.

“The FTX Group’s collapse appears to stem from the absolute concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals,” Ray said in the written testimony released Monday in advance of the hearing. The prior management “failed to implement virtually any of the systems or controls that are necessary for a company that is entrusted with other people’s money or assets.”

It’s not the first time Ray, who previously oversaw the liquidation of Enron Corp., has hard harsh words for his predecessors. He previously said he’d never seen such a lack of corporate controls and trustworthy financial information.

According to Ray’s testimony, some of the unacceptable practices at FTX included: the use of computer software that gave senior managers access to systems that stored customer assets without controls to prevent them from redirecting those assets; commingling of assets; the ability of FTX’s sister company Alameda Research to borrow funds for its own trading or investments; and the absence of audited financial statements. 

The possible mishandling of customers funds and the flow of money between FTX and Alameda are at the center of civil and criminal investigations into once-prominent crypto exchange. Bankman-Fried, who hasn’t been charged with any crimes, has denied trying to perpetrate a fraud, though he has owned up to grievous managerial errors at FTX.   

Ray in his prepared remarks also said that FTX went on a “spending binge” in late 2021 through 2022, during which about $5 billion was spent on different businesses and investments — many of which may be worth a fraction of what was paid. 

The current CEO said he and a team of outside consultants and experts are sifting through the company’s financial records to try to locate assets that can be used to repay customers and creditors. The scope of those efforts is “enormous,” he said. 

“It involves detailed tracing of money flows and asset transfers from the time of FTX’s founding, and highly complex technological efforts to identify and trace crypto assets,” Ray said. “We are in the process of collecting and reviewing dozens of terabytes of documents and data, including records of billions of individual transactions, and we are leveraging sophisticated technology and expertise to identify and trace additional transactions and assets.”

(Updates to include a statement from the Senate committee in the third paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) — US stocks advanced with investors gearing up for Tuesday’s reading on consumer prices. US Treasuries ended Monday lower, erasing earlier gains.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 climbed 1.2%. Treasury yields rose, with the 10-year rate around 3.61%. The dollar advanced. 

All eyes will be on the US consumer price index reading on Tuesday, which is expected to show prices, while still high, are continuing to decelerate. The S&P 500 — in a best-case scenario — could rally as much as 10% on a softer CPI reading, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s sales and trading desk. However, the chances of that happening is about 5%, according to their analysis. A cooler inflation reading from the prior month spurred a 5.5% daily surge, with the S&P 500 index notching its best post-CPI day on record.

A subdued CPI print would justify the Federal Reserve’s projected half-point move on Wednesday and shed light on whether markets can expect rate cuts in late 2023. While central bank officials have indicated a downshift in the pace of rate hikes, they have also emphasized that borrowing costs will need to remain restrictive for some time. 

“I wouldn’t read anything into the move today. The move will be after CPI, one way or another,” said John McClain, portfolio manager at Brandywine Global. “People are getting lulled into a false sense of security on a soft landing. The Fed isn’t cutting anytime soon. This is just going to be a longer cycle compared to 2020.”

Read More: Big, Concerted Stocks-VIX Swing Is Sign Trader Nerves Fraying

Following the Fed, the European Central Bank will announce its rate decision Thursday. Markets will also contend with decisions from the Bank of England and monetary authorities in Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, Switzerland and Taiwan.

Key events this week:

• US CPI, Tuesday
• FOMC rate decision and Fed Chair news conference, Wednesday
• China medium-term lending, property investment, retail sales, industrial production, surveyed jobless, Thursday
• ECB rate decision and ECB President Lagarde briefing, Thursday
• Rate decisions for UK BOE, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thursday
• US cross-border investment, business inventories, empire manufacturing, retail sales, initial jobless claims, industrial production, Thursday
• Eurozone S&P Global PMI, CPI, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 rose 1.4% as of 4:01 p.m. New York time
• The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.2%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.6%
• The MSCI World index fell 0.1%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
• The euro was little changed at $1.0535
• The British pound was little changed at $1.2271
• The Japanese yen fell 0.9% to 137.73 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin was little changed at $17,130.18
• Ether rose 0.2% to $1,267.06

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 3.61%
• Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 1.94%
• Britain’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 3.20%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude rose 3.4% to $73.41 a barrel
• Gold futures fell 1.1% to $1,791.40 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Srinivasan Sivabalan.

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(Bloomberg) — Bahamian authorities probing FTX’s implosion are digging into what role its former top executives may have played in client withdrawals after the government froze assets on the platform last month, according to people with direct knowledge of the inquiry.

Regulators and financial-crime police are looking into whether FTX co-founders Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang were involved in the transactions or had advance knowledge of them, the people said. Local authorities have interviewed Bankman-Fried at his residence in Nassau multiple times as part of the probe, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the review.

The treatment of assets associated with FTX.com amid its collapse is a key flash point for creditors sifting through the wreckage. Bahamian authorities are also scrutinizing the web of relationships between FTX.com, which is registered locally as FTX Digital Markets Ltd., and Bankman-Fried’s trading firm Alameda Research. 

Representatives for the Bahamas securities regulator and police declined to comment. A representative for Bankman-Fried declined to comment. Wang didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Bahamas announced an asset freeze for FTX.com and appointed a provisional liquidator a day before more than 100 other entities declared bankruptcy in the US on Nov. 11. 

Despite that move, some withdrawals from the platform by local clients continued, fueling rampant speculation and finger-pointing. 

The Bahamian securities regulator went as far as to issue a statement on Nov. 12 saying that it hadn’t authorized withdrawals by Bahamian clients. Such transactions could be voidable and clawed back as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, officials have said.

Meanwhile, following the US bankruptcy filing, which didn’t include the Bahamian unit, authorities in the island country requested FTX.com assets be transferred to wallets controlled by the government “for the benefit of clients and creditors.” Lawyers in charge of restructuring FTX in the US have blasted that move. 

Bahamian authorities, like their counterparts in the US, have been probing FTX’s collapse for about a month. 

Both Bankman-Fried and Wang have remained in the island nation, said one of the people. Although they haven’t been arrested, they are being monitored by authorities there, the person said.

In multiple press interviews over the past several weeks on the firm’s collapse, Bankman-Fried has said he didn’t intentionally break laws at the helm of FTX.

The Bahamas securities watchdog has visibility into the operations of FTX Digital Markets because it was directly overseen by local regulators, said the person. However, authorities lack the similar information about Alameda and other FTX-linked entities that were registered to do business in the Bahamas, but not regulated as extensively.

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(Bloomberg) — California’s finance department has been hit by a cybersecurity attack, and a notorious ransomware group is claiming responsibility.

The Russia-affiliated group dubbed LockBit claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack on the agency, and said it has given the Department of Finance until Dec. 24 to pay up or else it will publish a cache of stolen files. The hacking group claims to have stolen 76GB of data, including IT and financial documents, confidential data and “sexual proceedings in court,” according to the group’s blog.

LockBit ransomware has been deployed against at least 1,000 victims since January 2020, when it first appeared, according to the US Justice Department. LockBit members have made at least $100 million in ransom demands and extracted tens of millions of dollars in actual ransoms, according to DOJ.

During a ransomware attack, hackers encrypt a victim’s data — and often steal files beforehand — and hold them hostage until a ransom is paid, usually in cryptocurrency. Sometimes hackers leak documents to put pressure on the victims to pay.

“While we cannot comment on specifics of the ongoing investigation, we can share that no state funds have been compromised, and the department of finance is continuing its work to prepare the governor’s budget that will be released next month,” California’s cybersecurity center said in a statement.

Governor Gavin Newsom must present his budget for the next fiscal year by Jan. 10. As of midday California time, the state’s website for past and current budgets remained inaccessible. The current budget allocated $38.8 million for cybersecurity efforts.

The cybersecurity center said the attack was “proactively identified through coordination with state and federal security partners.” The agencies that comprise the center, including the Office of Emergency Services, Department of Technology, California Military Department and California Highway Patrol, have responded to identify the threat, assess its extent and “evaluate, contain and mitigate future vulnerabilities.”

(Updates to add details on group claiming responsibility for attack starting in first paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) — The creator of the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of NFTs and its promoters, including Madonna, Paris Hilton and Justin Bieber, were sued by investors claiming they were duped into buying the collectibles by celebrities who didn’t disclose they were paid to pump sales.

Yuga Labs Inc., the blockchain start-up behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, Hollywood agent Guy Oseary and MoonPay USA LLC, a company controlled by Oseary, were accused in the proposed class-action lawsuit of leveraging their network of A-list musicians, athletes and celebrities to misleadingly promote and sell Yuga financial products.

The “promotional campaign was wildly successful, generating billions of dollars in sales and re-sales,” the investors said in the complaint, filed Friday in Los Angeles federal court. “The manufactured celebrity endorsements and misleading promotions regarding the launch of an entire BAYC ecosystem (the so-called Otherside metaverse) were able to artificially increase the interest in and price of the BAYC NFTs during the relevant period, causing investors to purchase these losing investments at drastically inflated prices.”

It’s the latest lawsuit to target celebrities for their promotions of digital financial products. At least three investor suits were filed following the implosion of FTX, targeting celebrities including Tom Brady and Stephen Curry for promoting the failed crypto exchange. Curry was sued by the BAYC investors, as were Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Hart and Serena Williams, among others.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Yuga Labs over whether sales of its digital assets violate federal law and whether certain nonfungible tokens from the Miami-based company are more akin to stocks and should follow the same disclosure rules, Bloomberg reported in October.

Read more: Bored-Ape Creator Faces SEC Probe Over Unregistered Sales

“These claims are opportunistic and parasitic,” Yuga Labs said in an emailed statement, referring to the BAYC lawsuit. “We strongly believe that they are without merit, and look forward to proving as much.”

Oseary, who also represents Madonna, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

At least one lawsuit over crypto promotions has failed. 

Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather Jr. were sued in Los Angeles over their promotion of the EthereumMax token, but Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald threw out the complaint Dec. 8, ruling the investors failed to allege facts showing that they paid more than the fair market value for their EMAX tokens when they bought them. Kardashian agreed to pay $1.26 million to settle SEC claims related to the promotions.

Also named in the BAYC complaint is FTX’s former head of commercial initiatives Amy Wu, who was on the board of Ape DAO, and served as a consultant and spokesman for the company.

“Wu utilized her relationships at crypto exchange FTX to recruit world champion athlete defendant Curry to solicit sales of the BAYC collection of NFTs,” the investors claimed. “None of these celebrity endorsements of BAYC NFTs disclosed the underlying financial interests and relationships involved.”

The BAYC investors cite a litany of promotions that they claim were misleading in the 94-page complaint, including Hilton’s appearance on the Jimmy Fallon show on NBC where both touted BAYC NFTs and Hilton’s follow-up Twitter posts. Fallon is also a defendant in the suit.

Allison Rawlings, a spokesperson at NBCUniversal, said the company doesn’t comment on legal matters.

The Twitter posts “gave investors the false impression that Hilton: (1) actually bought the BAYC NFT; and (2) was enthusiastically ‘hanging out in the metaverse’ with Fallon and that they were ‘BoredApeBesties,”’ the investors claim in the complaint. “In truth, Hilton was only promoting the BAYC NTFs and MoonPay because she was financially motivated to make those statements.”

Madonna was accused of giving a false impression in a newspaper article that quoted her saying she was upset over being beaten to a bid on a Bored Ape NFT.

Madonna’s “statements about her inability to obtain the BAYC NFT that was her first choice misleadingly suggested to investors that the Yuga securities were in such high demand and so exclusive that even a highly-connected celebrity” like her couldn’t get any one that she wanted.

The investors seek unspecified monetary damages.

The case is Real v. Yuga Labs Inc., 2:22-cv-08909, US District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles.)

(Updates with Yuga Labs statement.)

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