Shaquille O’Neal has agreed to pay $ 1.8 million to resolve the claims that he cheated investors by promoting the now bankruptcy Crypto Exchange FTX.
The superstar withdrawal from the NBA, which once urged fans to trust the platform, will resolve accusations without admitting irregularities. But the agreement marks one of the first high profile agreements in the legal calculation on the collapse of FTX.
The proposed agreement, presented in the Florida Federal Court, would end a collective claim that accuses O’Neal of presenting FTX as a reliable and legitimate investment tool, particularly in live events and in the content of social networks, while supposedly helps to promote the adoption of unregistered values.
The class includes anyone who deposited money in FTX or had their patented token, FTT, between May 2019 and 2022.
If the supervision judge approves the agreement, the payment of $ 1.8 million of O’Neal will cover all legal fees, notices and administration costs and payments to eligible investors. The agreement also includes a broad release from future responsibility and a provision that prevents it from seeking the reimbursement of the Ropkcy Estate bank.
In summary: the check you are writing is final and all included.
“We are pleased to have this matter behind us,” said O’Neal’s lawyer in a statement.
Unlike other famous defendants and former sponsors of FTX, including Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen and Steph Curry, whose cases were greatly dismissed, O’Neal remained entangled after a long effort to serve legal documents.
Front Office Sports reported in February that O’Neal signed a $ 15 million agreement to remain with TNT’s “inside”.
O’Neal told CNBC in 2022 that, with respect to FTX, “he was just a spokesman paid for a commercial.”
O’Neal was appointed in a collective claim claiming that FTX spokesmen “controlled, promoted, attended in [or] He actively participated “in a plot to” aggressively market “the company.
In previous interviews with CNBC, O’Neal said he was actively avoiding cryptocurrency.
“I do not understand, so I will probably remain away until I fully understand what it is,” he said at that time, he added: “From my experience, it is too good to be true.”
