A law firm is trying to serve NBA legend Shaquille O’ Neal with papers in a lawsuit involving FTX that will seek alternative methods soon.
O’Neal was named a defendant alongside several other celebrities in a class-action lawsuit filed last November in a Florida federal district court. It alleges that O’Neal and others such as Tom Brady and Larry David “actively participated” in the “offer and sale of unregistered securities” by promoting FTX.
After multiple attempts were made to serve O’Neal with papers in person over the past few months, Adam Moskowitz—one of the lawyers representing FTX investor Edwin Garrison in the lawsuit—told Decrypt his firm will seek to do substituted service tomorrow.
“We still have not served Shaquille O’Neal, so we’re gonna file papers with the court tomorrow asking to do substituted service,” he said. “Basically, the largest man is hiding from our lawsuit.”
It has been noted that the method of delivering court papers is reserved for circumstances where defendants can’t be reached personally or practically, allowing a complaint to be sent to a defendant’s personal address instead. Alternatively, court papers can be served via NFT, based on other Florida court proceedings.
Moskowitz said that service companies have tried to find O’Neal at various locations over the course of their efforts to deliver the lawsuit’s complaint, including his NBA studio, a home, and places he’s done promotions.
When O’Neal shared that he was recovering from hip replacement surgery on social media three days ago, an attempt to serve O’Neal at his Orlando residence was stifled after a process server was told that O’Neal had “already fled to the Bahamas” by security personnel at the home’s front gate, Moskowitz claimed. Due to O’Neal’s alleged evasiveness so far, the lawsuit has been unable to proceed.
