Billionaire Mark Cuban is set to be deposed on Feb. 2 in Dallas, Texas over his promotions of defunct crypto lender Voyager Digital, according to a court order. The Dallas Mavericks owner will be deposed as part of the class-action lawsuit filed by Voyager investors.
A deposition involves answering questions under oath that are noted as formal statements to be used during the trial.
On Jan. 6, U.S. magistrate judge Lisette M. Reid denied Cuban’s request to split his deposition into two parts. Judge Reid of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida ordered that Cuban’s deposition will not be limited to jurisdictional issues.
As part of the defense, Dallas Mavericks employees Ryan Mackey and Kyle Tapply will be deposed by Feb. 23, Reid ordered. The discovery evidence related to Mackey and Tapply has to be handed over to the plaintiffs by the end of January, the court order added.
Furthermore, the judge ordered the deposition of three Florida-based Plaintiffs to be held by Jan. 24. According to the order, plaintiffs Pierce Robertson will be deposed this week, Rachel Gold will be deposed on Jan. 23, and Sanford Gold will be deposed on Jan. 23, or 24.
Additionally, a non-party Eric Rares will also be deposed by Jan 23 or 24, the court order said. The judge also ordered the plaintiffs to produce all evidence regarding their Voyager accounts and related documents by Jan. 13.
The plaintiff’s counsel was glad that the court shut down Cuban’s “attempts to stay and delay discovery.” In a statement to Law360, the plaintiff’s counsel said:
“We have been litigating on behalf of hundreds of injured Voyager investors for more than a year and will finally be able to uncover evidence of what transpired, and fully understand to what extent Mr. Cuban, and his Dallas Mavericks, were involved in the ‘offering’ of these unregistered securities and to what extent he was to profit.”
Cuban’s lawyer told Law360 that the deposition of the plaintiffs will encompass “issues of standing, alleged false statements included in the complaint, and questions about the Voyager accounts held by the plaintiffs.”
The class-action lawsuit was filed against Cuban on Aug. 10, alleging that Cuban misrepresented Voyager on multiple occasions and promoted it as being cheap and commission-free. Voyager declared bankruptcy on July 5, a few days after hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) — which owed over $650 million to Voyager, — became defunct.
Voyager owes over 3.5 million users more than $5 billion.
The plaintiffs believe Cuban should be held accountable for luring “unsophisticated investors” with “false and misleading promises” of large profits. Voyager was akin to a Ponzi scheme, the plaintiffs claim.
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