Shaquille O’Neal has been served in a class-action lawsuit towards FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and a number of movie star spokespeople, a lawyer for the plaintiffs mentioned in an announcement Sunday evening. The announcement got here a number of days after a Florida choose denied a movement to permit the NBA legend to be served electronically after allegedly dodging service for months.
“I needed you to know the excellent news that we simply served personally Shaquille O’Neal outdoors his home in Atlanta,” Adam M. Moskowitz, the lawyer main the lawsuit, mentioned in an announcement. “The excellent news is his dwelling video cameras recorded our service and we’ve made it very clear, he’s not to destroy and/or erase any of those safety tapes, as a result of they have to be preserved for our lawsuit.”
Moskowitz and his legislation agency had been given a deadline of Monday to serve O’Neal, who Moskowitz mentioned had “been hiding and driving away from our course of servers for the previous 3 months.”
O’Neal, who presently serves as an analyst for “Contained in the NBA,” was the ultimate defendant within the lawsuit to be served, in accordance with the movement asking to serve him electronically.
The movement claimed {that a} course of server had tried to serve O’Neal dozens of occasions at his Texas and Georgia residences, and through mail to each the residences and his workplaces in Atlanta, the place “Contained in the NBA” is broadcast from.
Attorneys alleged within the movement that after an try and serve O’Neal in Texas, the method server “was despatched an ominous and threatening textual content message by O’Neal or somebody appearing on his behalf.” The textual content message additionally claimed O’Neal lives within the Bahamas, which the legislation agency then decided to be unfaithful, the movement states.
The lawsuit accuses Bankman-Fried, O’Neal and different movie star spokespeople, together with Tom Brady and Larry David, of defrauding FTX buyers.
“Mr. O’Neal will now be required to seem in federal courtroom and clarify to his hundreds of thousands of followers his ‘FTX: I Am All In’ false promoting marketing campaign,” Moskowitz mentioned Sunday evening.
The four-time NBA champion has denied being concerned in FTX past his sponsorship deal.
“Lots of people assume I am concerned, however I used to be only a paid spokesperson for a business,” he mentioned in an interview on CNBC after the lawsuit was filed.
FTX, which collapsed late final yr, shuffled buyer cash between affiliated entities, utilizing new investor funds and loans to pay curiosity on previous ones in an try “to keep up the looks of liquidity,” Moskowitz informed CBS Information in an electronic mail.
“FTX had been geniuses at public relations and advertising, and knew that such a large Ponzi scheme — bigger than the Madoff scheme — may solely achieve success with the assistance and promotion of essentially the most well-known, revered, and beloved celebrities and influencers on the planet,” he mentioned.
— Kate Gibson contributed reporting.