SAN DIEGO, CA — In what legal analysts are calling “the greatest SEO crisis since the JCPenney link scheme,” marketing guru Neil Patel has reportedly been sued by FTX’s bankruptcy estate in an effort to claw back tens of millions of dollars that allegedly went to Patel’s companies for “duplicative, sub-par, and sometimes imaginary” services.
But in true Patel fashion, the lawsuit has already been out-ranked on Google by Patel’s own content blitz.
The $75K-a-Month Marketing Manager
Court filings allege that Patel was brought in as a “Marketing Manager” for FTX at a $75,000 per month salary plus 100,000 shares of FTX stock, which makes him the only person on Earth to have made money on FTX stock.
FTX lawyers claim they paid Patel’s firms $30.8 million for services employees described as “sooo sloppy,” a phrase that Patel has since trademarked and turned into a lead magnet.
“We Aren’t Being Sued for $55 Million,” Says Guy in $55M Lawsuit
Patel publicly responded, clarifying that he’s not being sued for $55 million, just “whatever number of millions FTX lawyers can pry out of my wallet before I 301-redirect them into oblivion.”
He went on to note that FTX kept paying him even after calling his work terrible — which, in Silicon Valley, is considered a glowing performance review.
Reputation Management: The Real Winner
Marketing insiders discovered that searching “Neil Patel sued” returns a wall of articles about Patel’s 2011 lawsuit, his “I love lawsuits” TEDx talk, and a newly-published 8,000-word blog post titled “How Getting Sued Can 10x Your Backlinks.”
Patel denies manipulating results, insisting, “I just happened to create 1,500 fresh pieces of content about lawsuits the moment this story broke. Totally unrelated. Also, please subscribe to my newsletter.”
Coming Soon: “FTX Case Study – How I Got Paid $30 Million to Teach a Crypto Exchange About Ubersuggest”
Sources close to Patel say a webinar is already in the works:
“Join me LIVE as I walk you through how to land a client, charge them 12x your going rate, and still get them to leave you a glowing review. Bonus: how to delete your Slack history before bankruptcy court subpoenas it.”