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- Shaquille O’Neal agrees to pay an $11M settlement over Astrals NFT lawsuit for selling unregistered securities.
- Court approves $11M settlement for buyers of Astrals NFTs, with $2.9M allocated for attorney fees.
- O’Neal faces legal action over FTX crypto promotion, caught serving court papers during Miami Heat playoff game.
Shaquille O’Neal, one of the most famous celebrities, has recently joined the class action suit and decided to pay $11 million. The federal court of Florida has approved the deal relating to the buyers of Astral’s non-fungible tokens collection. It is a regulatory action lawsuit files for violation of securities laws for selling and promoting unregistered securities through O’Neal.
The document from the federal court released on April 8 shows that Judge Federico Moreno endorsed the terms of the settlement. This particular agreement provides up to $ 11 million for the eligible buyers, while $ 2.9 million is supposed to be given to the attorneys.
This legal case relates to the buyers who invested in Astrals NFTs between May of 2022 and January 15th, and buyers who invested in the GLXY tokens in the same duration of time.
Astrals NFT Controversy
The case was initiated in May 2023 where it was claimed that O’Neal used his influence to promote the Astrals NFT project. The set of 10,000 unique league-generated collectibles was linked to an additional social media channel based on the NBA star and a virtual reality world where the user could interact with the star.
As indicated in the complaint, O’Neal was an active member of the Astrals Discord during the height of the NFT craze, and even shared the ‘I’m not f***ing leaving’ meme to the holders. It was also mentioned in the pertinent papers submitted in court.
However, when the market situation worsened in 2022-2023, the interest in the project decreased. O’Neal deliberately stepped back from supporting the initiative, thus causing a lot of investors to end up with assets that had depreciated greatly in value.
Unregistered Securities Allegations
The plaintiffs assumed they lost money because of O’Neal and his endorsements, which they considered to be the sale of unregistered securities. O’Neal also secured a settlement agreement in November. The court had noted the potential of the lawsuit the previous year, stating that the basketball legend was a direct seller of the token.
This is not the first time O’Neal has run into legal trouble involving cryptocurrencies. He is also currently facing legal action concerning his promotional activities of the FTX-based cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed.
Seemingly, legal representatives found it challenging to deliver those recent legal summons and complaints to him and finally caught him at the former FTX Arena while watching a Miami Heat finals game in May 2023.
