SUED: Ronaldo hit with massive lawsuit because of sponsor

Cristiano Ronaldo is now reportedly facing a massive lawsuit because of one of his sponsors. 

The Portugal international is being sued for promoting the company Binance, with the player alleged to have assisted the company in getting his millions of followers to invest in "unregistered securities".

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Cointelegraph reports that a file sent to a United States district court in Florida earlier this week claimed that "Ronaldo's promotions solicited or assisted Binance in soliciting investments in unregistered securities by encouraging his millions of followers, fans, and supporters to invest with the Binance platform."

Binance is a company that provides an online platform that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies. The company has, however, seen its fair share of trouble in recent times. 

The company's founder resigned from his role as chairman of the board of directors on Wednesday, and is said to be facing criminal charges that could lead to him being sentenced to 18 months in prison. 

This comes after he and the company pleaded guilty to paying a whopping $4.3 billion (R79 billion) settlement to the United States government for violations of anti-money laundering laws as well as conducting an unregistered money-transmitting business.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, entered into a multi-year partnership with the crypto company last year, in a deal that has seen him post about the company on social media and promote his exclusive NFT collection, among other things. 

The 38-year-old has been accused of helping the company "successfully solicit or attempt to solicit investors in Binance's crypto-related securities from Florida and nationwide".

The file submitted to the court added that the superstar's efforts on social media resulted in a significant increase in online searches for NFT-related search terms, including a 500% increase in searches using the keyword "Binance".

"Given Mr. Ronaldo's investment experience and vast resources to obtain outside advisors, he knew or should have known of potential concerns about Binance selling unregistered crypto securities and/or that he was aiding and abetting Binance's fraud and/or conversion," the legal file states. 

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It further alleged that the former Manchester United attacker knew "the legal risks of promoting investments in cryptocurrency trading platforms".

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