Class members in a lawsuit against YouTuber Logan Paul say they lost over $4.1 million on his would-be NFT trading game Cryptozoo, according to new documents filed in a Texas court.
Multiple members say they lost six-figure sums, with one person claiming to be out $750,000 from the scheme.
The lawsuit was first filed in February 2023 against Logan Paul, his assistant Danielle Strobel, manager Jeff Levin, and the Cryptozoo development team in a Texas court. The initial claim was filed by Texas police officer Don Holland, who says he lost $3,000 to Cryptozoo, which was marketed by Paul as a “really fun game that makes you money.”
The game was supposed to let players trade NFT-based animals who would “mate” and create new creatures, a loose riff on Pokémon, a frequent subject for Paul. But players say that Paul pulled the rug out from underneath them, never completing the game. After being sued himself, Paul filed his own countersuit against his development team, alleging they pulled the rug out from under him.
Two Houston attorneys in the case represented Holland. One of the attorneys, Tom Kherker, is a YouTuber who goes by AttorneyTom and boasts over half a million subscribers. Holland’s lawyers quickly turned the lawsuit into a class-action case, alleging that Paul and the Cryptozoo co-founders promised a project that they never completed, then “fraudulently” held onto their alleged victims’ cash.
The complaint includes 139 people who invested sums ranging from $100 to $750,000. Many people lost their entire investment in the project. According to the court documents, losses totaled $4,133,774.07.
Along with the list of losses by class members, the new amended complaint also addresses a buyback program Paul announced in January where he also admitted that the game would never be released, citing undefined “regulatory hurdles.”
That buyback program was only worth $2.3 million, just a little more than half of what their clients say they lost. The buyback is only for the original “egg” NFTs at their initial purchase price of 0.1 Ethereum, which is worth half the value it was when the tokens were purchased.
YouTuber Coffeezilla, whose real name is Stephen Findeisen, kicked off investigations into the project with an eight-part series that launched in December 2022.
He put out another video after Paul announced the buyback, calling the program a “bargaining chip” by Paul to try to get the lawsuit dropped. Paul’s lawyers later claimed that Findeisen was being fed information from AttorneyTom. In July, Paul sued Findeisen, claiming that comments he made after releasing a three-part documentary series on Cryptozoo were defamatory.
The amended complaint also includes more information about the structure of Cryptozoo. According to the complaint, Paul owned 51% of the project and his manager Levin owned 10%. Eddie Ibanez, who was supposed to develop the game, owned 30%; Jake Greenbaum, who worked on the development owned 5%; and Paul’s assistant Danielle Strobel owned 1%.
The remaining 3% of the project was supposed to go to development costs.
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