FTX victims’ lawyers struggle to serve Shaquille O’Neal

CoinTelegraph reported:

The law firm representing victims affected by the FTX collapse has made a public plea to NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal, asking him to show “courtesy and honor” by acknowledging its legal complaint after several unsuccessful attempts.

In an April 14 tweet, The Moskowitz Law Firm revealed its team has been standing outside TNT studios in Atlanta all week – where O’Neal is employed as a television host – to serve him on behalf of FTX investors regarding his previous endorsement of the now-defunct crypto exchange.

“Your security guards will not let us in, to just hand deliver our legal complaint,” it was added.

It was emphasized that O’Neal is the only one among the “FTX celebrities,” which referred to the class-action lawsuit filed against several celebrities for endorsing FTX, including Tom Brady, Steph Curry and Larry David, who has not yet been served.

The law firm stated that O’Neal has been “running” from them “for 3 months” and should show courtesy and honor by allowing its process servers to deliver the legal complaint on his behalf so that he can defend his “actions in this matter.“

This comes after an April 7 court filing stated that numerous attempts had been made in various locations to serve O’Neal, but all have been unsuccessful. The filing stated:

“Mr. O’Neal is the sole remaining defendant in this matter who has still not been served. Despite Plaintiffs’ dozens of attempts in multiple states and countries, to either effect service on him or have him (or a designated agent) accept service of process.”

According to the court filing, the process server in Texas, Mr Shaw, received a threatening message after making the “eighth most recent attempt” to serve O’Neal at his Texas residence. 

The message mentioned Shaw’s wife, Beth Shaw, stating, “shaq lives in the Bahamas u stupid fuck give beth shaw my regards.”

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Text of a message received by a process server in Texas. Source: Case No. 1:22-cv-23753-KMM: dgmagstatic.com

It was further stated that the plaintiffs believe it is “finally time” to start attempting to contact O’Neal via other means, such as “direct messages to his verified social media accounts.“

Related: Celebs who got burned endorsing crypto and those that got away with it

This comes after it was reported on March 9 that United States District judge Kevin Moore is considering dismissing both O’Neal and tennis athlete Naomi Osaki from the lawsuit after pointing out that it is unclear whether the two had been served.

A paperless order was issued by Moore, giving FTX customers until December 2023 to provide justification on why both stars should be included in the lawsuit.

Magazine: Can you trust crypto exchanges after the collapse of FTX?

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