Maybe getting financial advice from movie stars and musicians isn’t such a smart idea. The SEC has now filed charges against a group of celebrities that were pushing crypto currencies onto their followers without revealing that they were paid to do so. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: Maybe getting financial advice from movie stars and musicians is a really bad idea. Yeah. The SEC has now filed charges against a group of celebrities that were pushing cryptocurrencies onto their followers without revealing that they were paid to do so. More importantly, Farron, do you think any of these folks really even understood, even understood what the hell was going on? Austin Mahone or let’s see, Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Ne-Yo. I mean, do you think they really understood the workings of crypto when they’re up there pushing it?
Farron Cousins: That’s, I mean, somebody should have taken the time to ask them, like, whoa, wait, you’re pushing this. I mean, can you explain what cryptocurrency is?
Mike Papantonio: Can you? I can’t.
Farron Cousins: I can barely do it. I’ve had many conversations where it’s been explained to me, but it’s a weird world that I don’t fully understand, but I still understand it more than these people who just took large sums of money to go out there basically, according to the complaint, engage in a pyramid scheme. That’s what this was because the companies were paying, they say, okay, you put it out there on your Twitter, you put it on your YouTube, all your social media, and for every, you know, X amount of people you get, you get this much money. And then if those people go and get more people, I mean, it’s literally set up as a pyramid scheme.
Mike Papantonio: Adult film star, Kendra Lust, she was one of them. Rapper, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty, you know. Okay, great. You know, I don’t mind the idea that they wanna endorse something, but at least know what the hell you’re endorsing because people are relying on it. People that they’re fans of yours, Lil Yachty. And when you say, let’s do this, they listen to you, which is crazy to me. I mean, we talk about all the time how crazy it is that celebrities talk to us about what politics should be. And I’d use this story over and over, I just can’t, Chelsea Handler not knowing that the moon is different than the Sun until she’s 42 years old. Really? And so she’s giving me political advice.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. And so with this one it is different because obviously I think you’ve had, I think Matt Damon has done some crypto commercials a year or so ago.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah, well he has, I mean.
Farron Cousins: And Tom Brady did, but that’s different because that’s a commercial, you know, obviously they’re getting paid. These individuals, you know, these kind of B list celebrities, a lot of ’em were promoting it without, because they were just putting on their social media as if, hey, this thing’s really cool. Give it a try. And nobody stopped to think like, wait a minute, what does Lindsay Lohan know about financial management and my retirement savings?
Mike Papantonio: Really.
Farron Cousins: But I guess that’s where we’re at.
Mike Papantonio: Well, you would, you know, it’s complicated. You know, I again, people have explained it to me. I kind of get it. It didn’t sound like a good idea.
Farron Cousins: And no, it does not, to me.
Mike Papantonio: Magic money.
