One of Shaquille O’Neal’s many commercials has him in some legal trouble. Don’t worry Icy Hot users, the petroleum jelly didn’t burn anyone in a sensitive area. For those who like to indulge in a Papa John’s Pizza, the pepperoncinis didn’t give guests at a kid’s birthday gathering stomach aches for party favors. For the thrill-seekers who put their money into the cryptocurrency service that O’Neal and Stephen Curry advertised, you all might end up getting some money back.
Shaq is part of a bigger lawsuit
Cryptocurrency company FTX filed for bankruptcy in late 2022. Shortly after, the company’s CEO was arrested. Samuel Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of securities fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance violations. Some of the spokespeople for FTX are facing civil litigation through a class action lawsuit, including O’Neal and Curry.
It has been a struggle for the law firm representing the aggrieved parties to properly serve O’Neal. Per the Wall Street Journal’s Joseph De Avila, the Moskowitz group was finally successful at what was formerly known as the FTX Arena — now the Kaseya Center.
Curry and O’Neal interacted prior to Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. On the TNT pregame show, Curry was announced as the winner of the NBA Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award. A lovely moment that began with a video message from Abdul-Jabbar lauding Curry for his work off of the court. After two questions from Ernie Johnson, O’Neal chimed in both to complement Curry and remind him that mum’s the word on any mutual “troubles.”
O’Neal was finally tracked down on set in Miami
Lead attorney Adam Moskowitz told De Avila that O’Neal was presented with the papers while on set after the game. The process server bought a ticket to Game 4 and simply approached O’Neal while he was on Inside the NBA set, and served him two in two lawsuits - second suit is in regards to his Astrals NFT Project. Shaq allegedly wasn’t laughing then, and had the process server thrown out of the arena. The Kaseya Center has not issued a statement on the incident.
O’Neal has allegedly been avoiding the processors attempting to serve him the papers for months. Per CNN, the Moskowitz Law Firm Group claimed to be successful on April 16. However, O’Neal’s attorneys sought to have the case dismissed because the papers were thrown at his moving car. O’Neal also denies any wrongdoing regarding FTX and his attorneys are seeking to have the charges dismissed on other accounts. No direct comments have been made about the second suit.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys claim that processors did not have these problems serving Curry, Naomi Osaka, Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, and Larry David — though this alleged situation does sound like a plot for a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode.
Few people have ever stood out in a room more than O’Neal. Turner’s Techwood campus in Atlanta, where the NBA on TNT is shot, is a highly secure building, but Shaq’s work schedule was still public knowledge. Combine that with knowing what time he needs to leave for work and where he lives, the servers have to do better than allegedly throwing the papers at his vehicle. According to one document, O’Neal claims to have done nothing more than drive past strangers “lurking” outside his home.
O’Neal also told CNBC in December that he was nothing more than a paid spokesperson for FTX.
It’s kinda funny...
As bad as I feel for those who got duped by Bankman-Fried and FTX, the idea of a law firm in hot pursuit of the world’s most famous humongous person and hurling legal documents at his moving vehicle is hysterical. I have heard of far more obscure people getting pinned in drive thru lines to be served papers.
The footage of these unsuccessful attempts must be leaked to the public. Is Shaq indeed evading Moskowitz’s process servers like Avon Barksdale did the detail after the East vs. West Baltimore game in Season 1 of The Wire?
Somehow tracking down a 51-year-old, 7-foot-1, 300-pound man who underwent hip surgery in March and is regularly on live television is like trying to catch a cricket at home at 3:30 a.m. Stories like this remind us that in this hellscape of a society, in which there is always a trap looking to extract us from our money, there is somebody out there still getting caught with the banana in the tailpipe for our amusement.