Former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski will pay $1.9 million to settle claims brought against him by former customers of Voyager Digital, a cryptocurrency lender.
The settlement, which is still subject to approval by the court overseeing the civil lawsuit, will see the National Football League star known as “Gronk” pay into a $2.4 million pool alongside National Basketball Association player Victor Oladipo and racecar driver Landon Cassill, according to a court filing dated May 3.
Gronkowski became a “brand ambassador, Voyager shareholder” and holder of Voyager’s VGX token in September 2021, a company press release announced at the time.
Voyager filed for bankruptcy in 2022.
A group of Voyager investors sued Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and other Voyager promoters that same year, adding Gronkowski and other promoters last year. The investors announced they had reached a deal with Gronkowski in February. Last week’s filing saw the Voyager investors announce that they were ready to proceed with “the first trance of proposed Class Settlements,” which were made with Gronkowski, Oladipo and Cassill.
“Plaintiffs have now settled with Voyager promoters Cassill, Gronkowski, and Oladipo for millions of dollars in relief to the class leaving Co-Defendants Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks as the remaining Defendants for trial in November 2024,” the filing said.
According to an accompanying exhibit, Gronkowski will pay $1.9 million, Oladipo will pay $500,000 and Cassill will pay $25,000 to settle the claims. If the court approves the settlement, the claims against the three will be dismissed.
Coincidentally, the investors filed the proposed settlement with the court just two days before former NFL quarterback Tom Brady – Gronkowski’s former teammate – participated in a comedic roast, which saw several comedians and other stars comment on Brady’s previous crypto endorsements, though without mentioning FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried’s defunct exchange Brady promoted.
Comedian Kevin Hart joked that the roast was taking place at the Kia Forum and not the Crypto.com Arena to avoid reminding people Brady owed them money, while fellow comedian Nikki Glaser took a more pointed approach.
“Tom also lost $30 million in crypto. Tom, how did you fall for that? I mean, even Gronk was like, ‘Me know that not real money,'” she said.
