Last week, basketball superstar Shaquil O’Neil (nicknamed Shaq) had a rough day.
The towering seven-foot-one former super athlete was slapped with two crypto lawsuits in one day, one for his role in the marketing of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which failed last November, and the other for his non-fungible token (NFT) project Astrals, which debuted last March.
FTX used to pay celebrities such as Shaq and former NFL quarterback Ton Brady to promote their platform and provide credibility to it.
Celebrities affiliated to FTX have faced a slew of lawsuits for adding their legitimacy to the fraudulent organization, therefore bearing some of the blame for the many billions of dollars lost.
Meanwhile, Shaq’s Astrals project complaint contends that the NFT release constituted an unregistered securities offering, with the future price performance of the NFTs itself related to promises made by Shaq.
According to the complaint, the Astrals NFT project fits the standards outlined by the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Howey Test, which was initially used to evaluate whether something is a security in 1946.
Has Shaq given up on Astrals?
The lawsuit involving Shaq’s Astrals NFT project raises the issue of whether the former NBA player is still actively involved in the endeavor.
Shaq reportedly last spoke with the project’s members through Discord on January 2.
10,000 purportedly metaverse-ready NFT avatars are part of the Solana blockchain-based project, and they can apparently be used in a role-playing game with a play-to-earn narrative.
However, the lawsuit’s plaintiffs contend that Shaq’s actions or lack of involvement with the project—which they contend was his « brainchild »—was the cause of their « investment losses. »
Adam Moskowitz, the founder of The Moskowitz Law Firm PLLC, and Boies Schiller Flexner LLP are representing the plaintiff in the complaint against Shaq. They contend that Shaq misrepresented to Astral NFT purchasers that he would « never » forsake them, even after the demise of FTX in November.
“Shaq even posted a video clip of the movie The Wolf of Wall Street, namely, to give the impression that he was not going anywhere,” Moskowitz added that “he has not been seen or heard from in months”
