Shaquille O’Neal Served With FTX And Astral NFT Lawsuits During NBA Game

Shaquille O’Neal, a former basketball star player, has been served with two lawsuits. The first is a class-action lawsuit over his promotion of the bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, while the second lawsuit alleges that he created and promoted the Astrals non-fungible token (NFT) project on the Solana blockchain.

Shaquille O’Neal faces two crypto-related lawsuits

The former basketball star was one of the celebrity promoters of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. However, following the exchange’s collapse, all the celebrities that endorsed the company are now facing a lawsuit filed by investors that are unable to access their funds from the exchange.

Besides facing charges around FTX marketing, O’Neal is also being accused of being behind the Solana-based NFT project known as Astrals. The second lawsuit claims that O’Neal promoted unregistered securities.

Process servers managed to reach O’Neal at the Kaseya Center, which was previously known as the FTX Arena, on May 23. They served him the two lawsuits during a playoff basketball to which he was the commentator, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

The two lawsuits were filed by lawyer Adam Moskowitz, who claimed that O’Neal was served with the FTX class-action lawsuit and another class-action lawsuit over his involvement in the Astrals project

Moskowitz said that the process server bought tickets to the basketball game at the Kaseya Center, where O’Neal was the commentator. According to Moskowitz, the server managed to deliver the complaint before he was removed from the arena.

The FTX class-action lawsuit involves celebrities that endorsed the exchange. O’Neal has been named in this lawsuit alongside other celebrities such as Steph Curry, Tom Brady, Larry David, and the former FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. FTX had invested heavily in marketing, with celebrity endorsements being the main mode of advertising its services.

O’Neal accused of promoting unregistered securities

While the class-action lawsuit against O’Neal and other celebrities that endorsed FTX was public knowledge, the new lawsuit involving the Astrals NFT project was previously unknown. The second class-action lawsuit involves O’Neal being the founder of a Solana-based NFT project known as Astrals that he also promoted.

According to the complaint, O’Neal’s actions constituted offering and selling unregistered securities. The lawsuit has claimed that the NFTs promoted by O’Neal for the Astrals NFT project were an investment contract, and they passed the Howey Test. The plaintiffs’ lawyers also said those who purchased the assets qualified to be “In a common enterprise” where they expected profits.

O’Neal is the sole defendant in this complaint. The plaintiffs have also claimed that they invested in the Astrals NFT project and reported significant losses because of O’Neal. The lawsuit also seeks to know whether O’Neal is still involved in the NFT project, as he has not posted a message on the project’s Discord since January this year. The plaintiffs want damages and monetary relief for the losses they claimed after purchasing the NFTs.