NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by investors in the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, according to several media reports this week.
The investors allege that O’Neal misled them by appearing in ads for the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange. The payout is about $1 million more than the $750,000 O’Neal was reportedly paid for his role in an FTX commercial.
The former basketball star was among several celebrities, including Tom Brady and Larry David, who were sued for promoting the exchange before its collapse in late 2022.
O’Neal has maintained that he was simply a paid actor in the ad, saying after the exchange’s collapse he was “just a paid spokesperson for a commercial.”
If the settlement is approved, O’Neal will be released from all future claims tied to the lawsuit. He will not be allowed to seek reimbursement from the FTX bankruptcy estate and will not have to admit any wrongdoing, according to the CNBC report.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of FTX users who deposited funds between May 2019 and late 2022, before the company’s dramatic failure.
FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding customers and investors. His sentence could be cut by over four years.
