The lawyers behind the class-action lawsuit against athletes and celebrities who promoted cryptocurrency exchange FTX have finally managed to serve Shaquille O’Neal with a copy of that lawsuit. Those lawyers made a rather unusual filing last week, asking for permission to serve O’Neal (reportedly the only defendant they hadn’t yet been able to serve) via social media, and claiming that was necessary because of O’Neal’s “shocking” conduct to avoid “dozens” of attempts to serve him over five months. That request was denied, but they were reportedly to able serve O’Neal (seen above ahead of the NBA Finals last year) by more standard means Monday:
BREAKING: Shaquille O'Neal finally served in FTX class action after three-month chase https://t.co/TzKFMhApYv
— The Block (@TheBlock__) April 16, 2023
Here’s more on that, from that The Block piece by Stephanie Murray:
Shaq has been served. After three months of chasing basketball great Shaquille O’Neal, lawyers handling a class action lawsuit served the basketball star and one-time FTX promoter outside his Atlanta home on Sunday.
…Lawyers finally served O’Neal at his home on Sunday afternoon, and say the exchange was captured on video. The case was filed by Oklahoma man Edwin Garrison, an FTX customer, and is being handled by attorneys Adam Moskowitz and David Boies. The news was first shared with The Block.
“We just served personally Shaquille O’Neal outside his house with a copy of our complaint at 4pm,” Moskowitz said in an email. “We took Judge Moore’s instructions very seriously and are glad to finally end this silly sideshow.”
…The exchange between O’Neal and a process server was captured on video, lawyers say, though it has yet to be released. O’Neal did not respond to a request for comment.
“His home video cameras recorded our service and we have made it very clear, he is not to destroy and/or erase any of these security tapes, because they must be preserved for our lawsuit,” Moskowitz said. “Mr. O’Neal will now be required to appear in federal court and explain to his millions of followers his ‘FTX: I Am All In’ false advertising campaign.”
This came after Moskowitz’s firm tried tweeting at O’Neal from outside the NBA on TNT studios Thursday, while he was working there on playoff coverage:
You’ve been running from us for 3 months & all other FTX celebrities have agreed to receive their complaints. Please have the courtesy & honor to simply allow our process servers tomorrow to deliver our legal complaint on your behalf, so you can defend your actions in this matter
— The Moskowitz Law Firm (@moskowitzesq) April 14, 2023
The actual service of O’Neal ends one very long and strange chapter of this lawsuit. Now that he’s been served, he joins an extensive list of celebrities named as defendants, including Larry David, Tom Brady, Steph Curry, Trevor Lawrence, David Ortiz, Shohei Ohtani, and more. The plaintiffs claimed in a November filing that “the scheme employed by the FTX Entities involved utilizing some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment — like these Defendants — to raise funds and drive American consumers to invest.” For his part, though, O’Neal said in December “A lot of people think I’m involved, but I was just a paid spokesperson for a commercial.” We’ll see where the case goes from here.
[The Block; photo from Darren Yamashita/USA Today Sports]
