Shaquille O’Neal Hit With FTX and Astral NFT Suits During NBA Game

Updated: 26 May 2023

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Shaquille O’Neal, the former NBA superstar, has been hit with yet another lawsuit. Moskowitz Law Firm served the NBA star with this lawsuit on Tuesday during a live NBA game where he was broadcasting.

Shaquille O’Neal Evades FTX and Astral NFT Lawsuit

The basketball legend faces a $1 billion legal suit with other celebrities, including Stephen Curry, Diesel, Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, Larry David, and Naomi Osaka.

The plaintiffs claim the celebrities promoted FTX, giving investors false promises before the cryptocurrency fell into bankruptcy.

Shaq has been trending for his various methods of evading the Miami-based Moskowitz Law Firm’s lawsuits. They threw legal papers on his moving car as he sped away in one incident.

pic.twitter.com/MLg1v6zAET

— SHAQ (@SHAQ) March 10, 2022

The lawsuit alleges a violation of securities laws by selling unregistered Astrals tokens. In a bid to promote investment in the virtual world, we saw the launch of Astral NFT in 2022. The company went bankrupt, leading to many people losing their invested money. In a statement, the plaintiff’s legal representative Adam Moskowitz said:

“It seems absurd to have to go to such great lengths to serve Mr. O’Neal, who is the deputy of the law. These claims are now very serious, and thus it is good that we can start with the merits, rather than the silly service sideshow Mr. O’Neal unfortunately created.”

More on Astral NFT Lawsuit

O’Neal founded the Astrals Project with his partners, Brian Bayati as CEO and Myles O’Neal as the company’s head of investor relations. Shaquille is facing a lawsuit amounting to more than $15 million for his involvement with the NFT.

According to a section of the project’s white paper included in the complaint, Astrals is a Solana-based NFT project that would comprise 10,000 “metaverse-ready” avatars supported by a DAO and a “story-driven, play-to-earn role-playing game.”

The lawsuit focuses on how O’Neal promoted the project, including on social media and during musical performances as DJ Diesel, and how he stopped communicating with the project’s community after FTX failed.

While speaking to FOS, Adam stated,

“The allegations in the new crypto complaint are very serious and detail how him, his son, and his business partner all founded this NFT Metaverse and he [Shaquille] made promises every week that he would be extremely involved, so the value of the NFTs would grow greatly.”

The Astral lawsuit is under Judge Moreno and Magistrate Goodman of the federal court in Miami. O’Neal, the defendant, has 20 days to respond to the suit.

Shaq is attempting to have the suit against him dismissed because the plaintiffs missed a deadline to serve him with legal documents.

Howey Test to Determine Whether Shaquille O’Neal is Guilty

The Howey Test, developed in a 1946 Supreme Court case to determine whether a transaction qualifies as an investment contract, will evaluate whether O’Neal sold unregistered securities. Factors include putting money into a joint venture with the expectation of profiting from the efforts of third parties. According to the lawsuit, Astral’s NFTs meet all criteria for being classified as a security.