NBA Legend Star Lawyers, Shaquille O’Neal, which previously backed the now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, have claimed that two bailiffs improperly served legal documents after several failed attempts in the past.
In a brief filed May 8 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Shaq’s legal team asserts that, following “an unsuccessful motion to serve” the NBA star, two bailiffs “thrown” the papers of a lawsuit in front of his moving car. According to the brief, Shaq did not stop to pick up the papers, but instead left them on the road.
“This purported ‘notice’ is improper under Rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Georgia law,” said the presentation. “It must be quashed, and the claims against Mr. O’Neal dismissed.”
Shaq was one of many high-profile figures who publicly endorsed FTX ahead of its November 2022 bankruptcy filing. The NBA star appeared in an ad saying he was “all in” for the exchange. Following the exchange’s collapse and facing potential legal action, O’Neal said he was “just a paid spokesman” for the company.
We couldn’t keep it secret any longer! We’re partnering with…the one…the only…@SHAQ! (aka Shaktoshi) pic.twitter.com/V37UQ5wsXI
—FTX (@FTX_Official) June 1, 2022
In November, the Moskowitz law firm filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Edwin Garrison and other FTX investors targeting celebrities and athletes for promoting the exchange’s services. A similar lawsuit filed by the same firm in March against influencers, including YouTuber ‘BitBoy Crypto’ (Ben Armstrong), who allegedly promoted the “FTX crypto fraud without disclosing that he had received compensation.”
Moskowitz reported on April 16 that O’Neal had received the lawsuit outside his home after several unsuccessful attempts. The law firm did not specifically mention giving the documents to the NBA star in his car or otherwise throwing them at him.
“As Mr. O’Neal, who never got out of his car, drove past the unknown men lurking outside his home, one of the officers ‘threw legal documents into the front of his car,'” says the document presented on May 8. When the documents collided with the car, which was driving “at high speed”, documents “they fell on the road” and the agents “they left the legal documents right where they had fallen,” that is, on public roads.
According to the presentation, this alleged method of serving legal documents was “insufficient under Georgia law” and inappropriate:
“Throwing papers at a moving car and leaving them unattended on a public road” is not a good deal, since it provides no way of knowing if the papers landed in the physical proximity of “Mr. O’Neal.”
Moskowitz has received court permission to notify others connected to the lawsuit, including by tweet in the case of the cryptocurrency YouTuber; Tom Nash.
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