Shaq will get served — once more — in FTX lawsuit

After months of cat and mouse, attorneys for a gaggle of FTX buyers have served Shaquille O’Neal. Once more.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys say O’Neal has repeatedly dodged course of servers who’ve been making an attempt to hand-deliver authorized complaints associated to his function as a star spokesperson for the cryptocurrency platform FTX, which collapsed late final yr and is now the topic of a large federal investigation.

The 7-foot-1 NBA hall-of-famer and commentator is one among a number of celebrities accused of defrauding buyers by showing as a spokesperson for FTX, although he’s the one one who has tried to dodge being served, in line with attorneys for the plaintiffs.

“It appears absurd to need to go to such nice lengths to serve Mr. O’Neal,” mentioned Adam Moskowitz, a lawyer representing FTX buyers.

The supply lastly occurred, Moskowitz mentioned, on Tuesday night time, exterior of the Miami venue previously referred to as FTX Area.

Attorneys for O’Neal didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Final month, it appeared as if the chase was lastly over after Moskowitz mentioned his agency’s course of servers reached O’Neal as he was leaving his residence in Georgia in an SUV. O’Neal’s attorneys disputed that in court docket, nonetheless, arguing that papers thrown at a shifting car run afoul of the necessities for serving a summons, the Wall Road Journal reported.

For the most recent effort, the method server filmed the occasion to make sure there was no ambiguity, Moskowitz mentioned. The server delivered the FTX criticism in addition to a a separate proposed class-action case associated to Astrals Undertaking, O’Neal’s non-fungible tokens enterprise. The second lawsuit, filed Tuesday, alleges O’Neal offered unregistered securities.

The FTX lawsuit, filed in November, accuses the bankrupt firm’s co-founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, together with a number of public figures who endorsed the platform — together with O’Neal, Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen and Steph Curry — of defrauding buyers.

Moskowitz known as O’Neal’s supposed evasive maneuvering a “foolish service sideshow” that has held up the authorized course of for hundreds of FTX buyers.

O’Neal has seldom spoken publicly about his function in FTX, although he instructed CNBC in December that he was “only a paid spokesperson for a business.”

FTX collapsed into chapter 11 on November 11 after depositors and buyers yanked their cash amid issues in regards to the platform’s stability sheet. Since then, federal prosecutors have charged Bankman-Fried and several other different executives with orchestrating one of many greatest monetary frauds in US historical past.

Bankman-Fried, who was arrested in December and is out on home arrest, has pleaded not responsible to 13 counts of fraud and conspiracy. A minimum of three of his former co-workers have pleaded responsible and are cooperating with investigators.