Shaquille O’Neal finally served in FTX lawsuit while covering Celtics-Heat in Miami
Shaquille O’Neal had reportedly been “dodging” lawyers and process servers for months
Ryan Young
Staff writer
Wed, May 24, 2023, 5:41 PM EDT·3 min read
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Shaquille O’Neal allegedly had a process server removed from the Kaseya Center on Tuesday night after they finally tracked him down. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
After trying to hunt him down for months now, a process server officially served NBA Hall of Famer and TNT analyst Shaquille O’Neal on Tuesday night.
O’Neal, who has been
apparently “dodging” lawyers representing FTX investors for months, was finally served a complaint Tuesday that’s part of a proposed class-action lawsuit filed against the failed cryptocurrency company, Adam Moskowitz, a lawyer representing the FTX investors, confirmed to People.
O’Neal was actually served the complaint while working for TNT during Tuesday night’s Eastern Conference finals game between the
Miami Heat and
Boston Celtics at the Kaseya Center — which was previously called FTX Arena.
"The process server filmed the event to ensure there was no ambiguity like Shaq has been arguing in the FTX case," Moskowitz
told People, adding that O’Neal had the process server “kicked out” of the arena.
“These claims now are very serious and thus it is good that we can start with the merits, instead of the silly service sideshow Mr. O’Neal unfortunately created,” Moskowitz said.
In theory, it shouldn’t have been hard to serve him properly — something that’s generally required to kick off a lawsuit.
O’Neal is everywhere. He has countless endorsements and commercials running on TV at any given time, and he’s on TNT at least once a week, if not more, during the NBA season. O’Neal has been on site for each game during the Eastern Conference finals working with “Inside the NBA,” too.
But O’Neal has reportedly been “dodging” process servers for months now. Officials have tried, and failed, to serve O’Neal both at his home, TNT’s studios, and even his ex-wife’s home repeatedly, according to the Wall Street Journal.
At one point, they said they “tossed the legal papers at his fast-breaking SUV” in an attempt to serve O’Neal, but it failed. O’Neal has denied these claims, and said that he simply “drove past the strangers lurking outside his home” when it comes to the fast-breaking SUV allegations.
O’Neal is one of several celebrities and athletes involved in the proposed class-action lawsuit that was filed by FTX investors after the company collapsed. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in January and charged with wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and more. O’Neal, along with Tom Brady and his ex-wife Gisele Bündchen, comedian Larry David, tennis star Naomi Osaka and
Golden State Warriors guard
Stephen Curry all promoted the company in commercials.
While O’Neal lasted a long time in avoiding the papers in the lawsuit against him, it wasn’t going to last forever. Now, regardless of whether O’Neal is truly at fault or not, the lawsuit can officially move forward.
