Shaquille O'Neal Finally Served FTX Lawsuit: Lawyers
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Legendary basketball player Shaquille O'Neal has finally been served in a class-action lawsuit against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, a law firm for the plaintiffs tweeted on Sunday.
"Plaintiffs in the billion $ FTX class action case just served @SHAQ outside his house," the Moskowitz law firm tweeted. "His home video cameras recorded our service and we made it very clear that he is not to destroy or erase any of these security tapes because they must be preserved for our lawsuit." The video recording has not yet been released.
Adam Moskowitz, co-counsel on the FTX lawsuits, confirmed the story following the publication of this article. Shaq getting served the lawsuit outside his Atlanta home ends a dramatic, almost outlandish chase, during which the superstar was “hiding and driving away from our process servers for the past three months,” Mostowitz told CoinDesk in an emailed statement.
Attorneys Moskowitz and David Boies are handling the case, filed by an Oklahoma FTX customer called Edwin Garrison in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
The lawyers have said previously that they'd tried to reach O'Neal by leaving comments on his social media platforms including Twitter and Instagram. Earlier this month, a Judge had denied a motion to allow O'Neal to be served electronically.
“We just served personally Shaquille O’Neal outside his house with a copy of our complaint at 4pm,” Moskowitz said in an email to The Block. “We took Judge Moore’s instructions very seriously and are glad to finally end this silly sideshow.”
Dubbed "Shaqtoshi" in an FTX commercial, O'Neal is one of several celebrities including centi-millionaire financier Kevin O'Leary, football star Tom Brady and basketball stars Steph Curry who are facing a class-action lawsuit for promoting a “fraudulent scheme.”
"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, created by FTX Advertising Agency “Dentsu McGarrybowen” and FTX Global Partnership Agency “Wasserman.” Moskowitz told CoinDesk.
After FTX collapsed last November O'Neal said: “I was just a paid spokesperson for a commercial.”
CoinDesk has been unable to reach O’Neal for comment.
Read More: How Social Media Influencers Fed Bankman-Fried's Cult of Personality
Update (April 17, 12:51 UTC): Adds comment from Adam Moskowitz and details throughout.
