7 Feet Giant Joins Tom Brady, Steph Curry & Naomi Osaka in the Billion Dollar Battle As Dodging Game Over for $400 Million Shaquille O’Neal

The ripple effect of the FTX scandal keeps wreaking havoc in the lives of the superstar celebrities who said yes to endorsing the Cryptocurrency exchange. After NFL legend Tom Brady, basketball wizard Steph Curry, and tennis sensation Naomi Osaka, it’s another NBA icon whose legal troubles have finally caught up to him. Charged with the advertisement of fraudulent investment schemes, some of the celebrities have been dodging the process servers to avoid getting slapped with the suit. Shaq did just that. However, his running came to an end this week. 

You can run, but you can never hide. While the hiding part comes easy to some, the same can’t be said for 7-foot-1 Shaquille O’Neal. The LA Lakers legend met his fate as he received the summons and complaint served with the impending class action FTX lawsuit. However, the way the process servers caught up with the elusive O’Neal was something worth noting. 

Shaquille O’Neal gets served during the NBA Playoffs broadcast!

Ever since retiring with four NBA championship rings, Shaquille O’Neal has enjoyed a cushy analyst role on the TNT desk. However, that’s precisely where attorney Adam Moskowitz expected to find the big man. In fact, Shaq was presiding over the Heat-Celtics game, two teams he has played for himself during his illustrious career. Clearly, the moment couldn’t be more apt for Moskowitz and more nightmarish for Shaq. 

“He was personally provided with the papers, so he cannot raise his absurd delay tactics. We watched the prior Heat/Celtics game. So knew he would be in the outside broadcasting booth where fans were right next door,” Moskowitz said, as per Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. 

What makes the process serving even more ironic is the fact that the arena hosting the Miami-Boston playoff game was also called the FTX Arena until very recently. Safe to say that there just couldn’t have been a better spot to hand over the legal papers to Shaq. 

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Shaq also received an additional lawsuit over the Astrals Project NFT offering. “He, his son and his business partner all founded this NFT Metaverse. And he made promises every week that he would be extremely involved. So the value of the NFTs would grow greatly. Once the FTX fraud was revealed, he ran away and has not been heard since,” Moskowitz added. 

Tom Brady lost an ungodly amount of money because of his bad investment in FTX 

It’s not certain exactly how much Shaq will lose from his $400 million net worth. However, if it’s anything like Brady’s setback, O’Neal has some big waves to ride. The 7x Super Bowl champion and his ex-wife Gisele Bündchen were at the forefront of the Sam Bankman-Fried-led FTX revolution. Not only did they invest heavy sums in equity, but the couple also endorsed the brand via multiple advertising campaigns. 

The former NE Patriots QB1 held nearly 1.1 million common shares of FTX, while Bündchen held around 680,000 shares. Given that FTX’s valuation stood at nearly $32 billion before going defunct, that amounts to nearly $48 million in losses for TB12 and nearly $25 million for Bündchen. Gisele even apologized for her involvement, claiming the lack of clarity as the guiding force behind this fraudulent episode. 

Surely, Shaq, Brady, Curry and the rest will pray for this turbulent episode to be in the backseat as soon as possible. 

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