Shaquille O’Neal accused of tanking NFT Project “Astrals” following FTX collapse
Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal is under legal scrutiny following allegations of neglecting his role in the NFT project Astrals after the collapse of FTX, which he endorsed. A federal class action lawsuit against O’Neal has intensified with an amended complaint filed on Thursday.
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Ongoing court case
The 111-page submission follows the appointment of lead plaintiffs by a district judge in Florida last month. They are now represented by The Moskowitz Law Firm, known for spearheading several crypto-related class action lawsuits.
Adam Moskowitz, the firm’s Managing Partner, recently emphasized the significance of this development:
“Judge [Federico] Moreno chose our clients as the lead plaintiff. This is a significant advancement as they now represent all the investors,”
Shaq’s involvement with Astrals
Moskowitz also revealed that the newly filed complaint provides deeper insights into O’Neal’s association with Astrals. This includes evidence from deleted videos and tweets accessed via archive websites:
“The evidence suggests Shaquille O’Neal and his associates were much more involved in Astrals than previously thought,”
The revised lawsuit alleges a direct correlation between O’Neal’s celebrity stature and Astrals’ value. However, following the fall of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, O’Neal ostensibly distanced himself from the Astrals community.
Contradicting this was his last post in the Astrals Discord community, a “Wolf of Wall Street” GIF, captioned “I’m not fucking leaving”. The suit contends that O’Neal has been absent from Astrals ever since that post.
Astrals’ RPG and Avatars
Astrals, based on the Solana blockchain, launched 10,000 “metaverse-ready” avatars, integrated with a DAO and a role-playing game (RPG). The complaint also highlights potential issues with the DAO’s governance token, $GLXY, questioning its legality.
While Cypher Capital and MH Ventures, two venture capital firms associated with Astrals, aren’t named as defendants, Moskowitz shared plans to involve them. “We intend to serve third-party subpoenas to Cypher Capital and MH Ventures in due course,” he stated.
O’Neal’s legal team moved to dismiss the class-action lawsuit in July, arguing that the digital assets targeted gamers, not investors. However, the motion was refuted in late August. O’Neal now has until September 29 to address the updated complaint.
