Katherine Legge Nearly Scammed With $20 Million Race Sponsorship Deal Involving Crypto Payments

IndyCar driver Katherine Legge appeared on the latest episode of her podcast with Danish driver Christina Nielsen. Legge and Nielsen discussed the $20 million sponsorship deal involving cryptocurrency, which nearly ripped off both racing drivers.

Motorsport has always been a rich man’s sport, given its financial aspects. You either have to have the ability to stay in motorsport for a long time, be talented and lucky enough to reach the top where you get paid for your skills, or have a sponsor on your side to fund the race.

Katherine Legge, in the latest episode of the Throttle Therapy podcast, sat down with her friend and motorsport driver Christina Nielsen and discussed the sponsorship deal that nearly ripped off the duo.

Christina started the story and revealed how the sponsors first contacted someone who was looking for sponsorships for both drivers. The story dates back to 2020 and the sponsors offered a $20 million deal spread over a multi-year contract.

“We should have realized this, we want to give you 20 million over the next three years. Yes. Right there. There should have been a wake-up call,” Nielsen said. (from 3:30 p.m.)

They then detailed how they had a legitimate address, website, customer reports and more while researching the investment company. She then revealed how the sponsors wanted to pay in Bitcoin, and their lawyers discovered the same trick.

“We had a lawyer, yes. That’s because that’s when things started to get tricky. Because they wanted to pay us in Bitcoin. Or cryptocurrency at least,” Nielsen said.

Katherine Legge and Nielsen then explained how they then went to a hotel for the meeting and how the lawyer gave them instructions to detect if anything fishy was going on.

“They were supposed to transfer us Bitcoin, but they wanted our phones. And we were like no, no, no, no, no, no. I’m definitely not giving,” Katherine Legge said.

“So the deal was that when they approved the transfer, they wanted the transfer to match their fee percentage for the agent to bring the deal to the table. Yeah, that was it. And then it turned out to be a scam because I don’t know if it was like $130 in the account or something. It’s like something I don’t remember exactly,” Nielsen concluded.

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Katherine Legge looks back on her journey in the NASCAR Cup Series in Las Vegas

Katherine Legge made her NASCAR Cup Series debut earlier this year and previously raced in the Xfinity Series. Legge announced his return for the race in Las Vegas, which was his seventh Cup Series appearance of the season. Reflecting on the race, Legge said (on the Throttle Therapy podcast)

“My car was quite difficult at the beginning, I would say. I was also trying to get used to it and I didn’t feel very confident. But at every stop the team did a fantastic job, and at every stop we made a change in the right direction.”

Katherine Legge started the race in P38 (last) on the grid and finished in P31.