Shaquille O’Neal has agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle claims that he misled investors by promoting the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.
The retired NBA superstar, who once urged fans to trust the platform, will resolve the allegations without admitting wrongdoing. But the deal marks one of the first high-profile settlements in the legal reckoning over FTX’s collapse.
The proposed settlement, filed in Florida federal court, would end a class action lawsuit accusing O’Neal of presenting FTX as a trustworthy and legitimate investment tool — particularly at live events and in social media content — while allegedly helping drive adoption of unregistered securities.
The class includes anyone who deposited money into FTX or held its proprietary token, FTT, between May 2019 and late 2022.
If the overseeing judge approves the deal, O’Neal’s $1.8 million payout will cover all legal fees, notice and administration costs and payouts to eligible investors. The arrangement also includes a sweeping release from future liability, and a provision barring him from seeking reimbursement from the FTX bankruptcy estate.
In short: The check he’s writing is final — and all-inclusive.
“We are pleased to have this matter behind us,” counsel for O’Neal said in a statement.
Unlike other celebrity defendants and former FTX endorsers — including Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen and Steph Curry — whose cases were largely dismissed, O’Neal remained entangled after a lengthy effort to serve him legal papers.
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Front Office Sports reported in February that O’Neal inked a $15 million deal to remain with TNT’s “Inside the NBA.”
O’Neal told CNBC in 2022 that, regarding FTX, he “was just a paid spokesperson for a commercial.”
O’Neal was named in a class action lawsuit alleging that FTX’s spokespeople “either controlled, promoted, assisted in [or] actively participated” in a plot to “aggressively market” the company.
In earlier interviews with CNBC Make It, O’Neal said he was actively avoiding cryptocurrency.
“I don’t understand it, so I will probably stay away from it until I get a full understanding of what it is,” he said at the time, adding: “From my experience, it is too good to be true.”
