Shaq May Be Hiding In His House To Avoid FTX Lawsuit

At the height of its prestige, the crypto exchange FTX had no larger celebrity endorsement than that of famed basketballer Shaquille O’Neal, who promoted the company through commercials and events, and is now being sued for his alleged role in persuading customers to invest with FTX.

But the former Los Angeles Lakers star, who once partnered with FTX “to help make crypto more accessible for everyone,” has made himself inaccessible to being served with the FTX lawsuit, attorneys said in emails reviewed by Forbes.

O’Neal was named in a class-action suit filed last November in a Florida federal district court by Oklahoma resident and FTX retail investor Edwin Garrison, who claimed he opened an account with the exchange after “being exposed to” celebrity endorsements. Other defendants include FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Giselle Bündchen, Tom Brady, Larry David and Stephen Curry.

“We have spent great efforts (4 different service companies) trying to get you all served with our Complaint,” Garrison’s lawyers David Boies and Adam Moskowitz wrote in an email to defendants on Tuesday. “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.”

That person, according to the lawyers, is O’Neal. Over the past month, the 7-foot-1-inch tall athlete has allegedly hidden inside his home when process servers appeared at his door with court papers. The lawyers also claimed to have contacted O’Neal’s last known litigation counsel to no avail.

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“It is really astonishing the measures he has gone to avoid service of our complaint,” Moskowitz told Forbes in an email. “The irony is that the admitted facts against him are probably the worst against any of the FTX Brand Ambassadors.” The attorney provided several examples of attempts to serve O’Neal at his Texas home.

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O’Neal himself hosted a carnival event last February called “Shaq’s Fun House Los Angeles Presented by FTX,” which featured rapper Lil Wayne and DJ Diplo. He also promoted FTX in a series of bullish crypto tweets, and in June debuted as an official FTX brand ambassador, announcing in a commercial: “I’m all in. Are you?”

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

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The class-action suit, which is separate from the federal case against FTX, has argued that celebrities should be responsible for attracting billions of dollars in investments meant to “keep the whole scheme afloat.” The suit also claimed that defendants violated SEC endorsement laws by failing to disclose “the nature, scope, and amount of compensation they personally received in exchange for the promotion of the Deceptive FTX Platform.” Defendants are expected to respond to the complaint by April 14. Kryptonite