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Shaquille O’Neal will be paying seven figures to settle the class-action lawsuit against FTX that also named other high-profile athletes.
O’Neal will pay $1.8 million after he was accused of touting the since-defunct cryptocurrency as a reputable and trustworthy investment option via paid endorsements.
Legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady and NBA star Stephen Curry, as well as David Ortiz, Shohei Ohtani, Naomi Osaka and Trevor Lawrence were also named in the suit as “parties who either controlled, promoted, assisted in and actively participated in FTX Trading and FTX US” transactions.
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Shaquille O’Neal walks on the grid before the F1 Grand Prix of USA at Circuit of The Americas on October 24, 2021, in Austin, Texas. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images / Getty Images)
O’Neal promoted the company in June 2022 but said he had been “just a paid spokesperson for a commercial.”
FTX was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, but it ended up with billions of dollars worth of losses and had to seek bankruptcy protection. The company and Bankman-Fried came under investigation by state and federal authorities for allegedly investing depositors’ funds in ventures without their approval.
Brady invested $30 million in FTX and was an “ambassador” for the platform before the exchange went belly-up in November 2022, causing him to lose the funds, according to a report from The New York Times last year.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said he had found that FTX customers had lost $8 billion, FTX’s equity investors had lost $1.7 billion, and lenders to the Alameda Research hedge fund Bankman-Fried founded had lost $1.3 billion.
Former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried leaves the Federal Courthouse following a bail hearing ahead of his October trial, in New York City on July 26, 2023. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Bankman-Fried was found guilty in November 2023 on two counts of wire fraud and five counts of conspiracy following the collapse of his crypto empire FTX in November 2022, which has been compared to Enron. The exchange had merged assets with sister hedge fund Alameda Research amid cash problems, leading waves of customers to withdraw funds. Bankman-Fried was indicted the next month.
Bankman-Fried, who capitalized on a rise in bitcoin and at one point accumulated an estimated $26 billion fortune, is also expected to be ordered to pay restitution.
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried arrives for a bail hearing at Manhattan Federal Court on August 11, 2023, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Soon after the crypto exchange went under, the Miami Heat’s arena, formerly known as FTX Arena, was renamed. O’Neal played four seasons with the Heat, winning a championship in 2006.
Fox Business’ Greg Norman, Suzanne O’Halloran and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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