Shaquille O’Neal Blasted For Allegedly Dodging FTX Lawsuit After The Crypto Exchange Was Sued For Scamming Investors 

Shaquille O’Neal Blasted For Allegedly Dodging FTX Lawsuit After The Crypto Exchange Was Sued For Scamming Investors

Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal is reportedly dodging a lawsuit.

As previously reported, last November, crypto heavy-hitter FTX took a major fall and filed for bankruptcy. A month later, its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested for (allegedly) swindling money out of customers to fraudulently merge with his neighboring firm, Alameda Research, for personal gain.

Sam Bankman-Fried

Prior to the company’s crash, in early 2022, Shaquille O’Neal was among the number of celebrities who endorsed the currency brand, encouraging potential investees to join the movement.

In June of that year, Shaquille O’Neal took to his Twitter to offer an honorary code for FTX newcomers. He wrote:

“I teamed up with @FTX_Official to help make crypto more accessible for everyone. We have a whole lot planned and let’s start it off with a bonus.”

Ahead of that tweet, in February 2022, the 51-year-old was also seen partnering with the company during his uber-successful Super Bowl festival, Shaq’s Fun House.

However, his steadfast promotion of the collaboration with FTX was (seemingly) short-lived, as O’Neal reneged on any direct involvement with the operation subsequent to its recent legal matters.

In an interview, the NBA phenomenon cited,

“A lot of people think I’m involved [with FTX], but I was just a paid spokesperson for a commercial.”

Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal

But… steering clear from the FTX frenzy may not be as easy as O’Neal had hoped it to be. The New Jersey native has been named in a class-action suit against the once-trading giant, and they aren’t letting up any time soon.

According to sources, FTX retail investor Edwin Garrison’s case opened following FTX’s bankruptcy, and O’Neal is said to be the only public figure who has yet to respond to the claims.

Despite O’Neal being accused of playing a role in “persuading” individuals to work with FTX, it appears that he’s sort of turned a blind eye to the complaint and has been very avoidant when attorneys have attempted to serve him.

via Forbes

Edwin Garrison’s representatives said in a statement,

“We have spent great efforts (4 different service companies) trying to get you all served with our Complaints. Only one, however, has chosen to evade service, in order to draw out these proceedings, or to otherwise attempt to avoid answering for these allegations.”

Shaquille O’Neal with son, Shareef, and ex-wife, Shaunie

They continued, alluding that O’Neal has remained in hiding:

“It is really astonishing the measures [O’Neal] has gone to avoid service of our complaint. The irony is that the admitted facts against him are probably the worst against any of the FTX Brand Ambassadors.”

Additionally, Edwin Garrison’s team suggested that O’Neal’s participation in FTX was under shady pretenses from the start.

The lawyers added,

“He admitted that his friend, Steph Curry, called him [and] told him he could make millions of dollars if he just served as [an] FTX Brand Ambassador and lied in a television commercial that he was ‘all in’ with FTA, when he admitted that, personally he would not go near cryptocurrency.”

It can be assumed that they’re referring to a 2021 sit-down where O’Neal stated that he didn’t know anything about cryptocurrency and would “stay away from it” until he got “a full understanding” of the rising business transaction.

As of now, O’Neal has maintained his silence.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!

[VIA]