NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal recently made it clear that he doesn’t believe in crypto, if he ever did. That’s after being named in a class-action lawsuit against now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX last month, for promoting the company in a June commercial.
Shaquille O’ Neal opens up on the matter
In an interview with CNBC Make It this week, the 50-year-old businessman and Basketball Hall of Famer took questions about his relationship with FTX while discussing his other business ventures.
O’Neal has a long history of investing in companies he promotes, including his current enterprise, Shaq’s Fun House, an annual part-festival, part-carnival event. Those investments often pan out: O’Neal makes more off the court than he did as an NBA star, he told HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” in 2018.
But when it comes to FTX, he says, he was merely a celebrity in an ad.
“A lot of people think I’m involved, but I was just a paid spokesperson for a commercial,” O’Neal says.
Bankman-Fried was arrested on Monday by Bahamian authorities, likely leading to extradition and a U.S. trial, CNBC reported. He’ll face at least eight charges from federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, including several counts of conspiracy and fraud.
Customers have been unable to withdraw funds from FTX since the company declared bankruptcy last month. As many as one million creditors, according to an FTX bankruptcy filing, are unsure if they’ll ever get their money back.
The class-action lawsuit naming O’Neal is a legal proceeding separate from the federal government’s charges. It alleges that FTX’s spokespeople “either controlled, promoted, assisted in [or] actively participated” in a plot to “aggressively market” the company.
Other athletes and celebrities from FTX’s commercials — including Steph Curry, Tom Brady, and comedian Larry David — were also named in the lawsuit. Texas is now separately investigating some celebrity FTX endorsers for potentially violating state securities laws, according to Bloomberg.
