Retired NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has reached a settlement in a lawsuit that allegedly had him on the run. The class action lawsuit accused him of actively participating in FTX’s offer and sale of unregistered securities before the firm’s collapse in 2022.
Before the FTX debacle, when things were still rosy, Shaquille O’Neal was featured in an advertisement where he claimed he was “all in” on the exchange, even though he would later claim that he didn’t understand crypto.
We couldn't keep it secret any longer! We're partnering with…the one…the only…@SHAQ! (a.k.a. Shaqtoshi) pic.twitter.com/V37UQ5wsXI
— FTX (@FTX_Official) June 1, 2022
Shaquille O’Neal joined in promoting FTX
According to court documents filed on April 23 in the Southern District of Florida, the plaintiffs, mostly investors who allege that FTX misled them about its financial stability and operations, and O’Neal, have reached a proposed settlement and will soon submit a formal request for the court’s approval.
Sadly, no details have been shared concerning the terms of the settlement, as the filing requested that they remain confidential.
It spells an end to a lawsuit that had O’Neal reportedly “running” from lawyers, as attorneys at the Moskowitz Law Firm said they had trouble serving papers to the NBA legend.
The firm said that it made several attempts to serve O’Neal with those papers, including staking out the TNT studios in Atlanta for a week in the hopes of hand-delivering the complaint to him.
O’Neal was implicated in the FTX drama after a 2023 court filing submitted to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware by FTX’s current management revealed a list of celebrities, businesses, and sports teams that had received payments for helping with its marketing efforts.
According to the documents, the former NBA star was paid close to $750,000 for his advertisement.
The FTX lawsuit is not the first time that O’Neal has been involved in a crypto arrangement that led to a settlement. In 2024, he also agreed to a settlement in relation to his Astrals NFT project.
According to a lawsuit from then, O’Neal actively promoted the Astral NFT project, then abandoned it in 2022, which led to some people losing huge sums of money.
A Florida federal judge later ruled that the NBA legend could plausibly be considered the “seller” of the asset under securities law, and subsequently, O’Neal and all associated Astrals entities agreed to a settlement of $11 million in monetary relief.
Other celebrities have been implicated in the FTX fallout as well
O’Neal is the latest celebrity to reach a settlement with plaintiffs from the FTX lawsuit, but he is not the only celebrity to be caught up in legal battles following FTX’s demise.
Others like him who have had to face the consequences include NFL quarterback Tom Brady, his ex-wife Gisele Bundchen, tennis star Naomi Osaka, and Shark Tank personality Kevin O’Leary.
NFL quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who signed a sponsorship deal with Blockfolio, an FTX subsidiary, in 2021, and YouTubers Tom Nash and Kevin Paffrath were also implicated. Like O’Neal, they also agreed to undisclosed settlements.
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