Shaquille O’Neal, the Basketball Hall of Fame and NBA championship winner has received a split verdict in an NFT court case.
The class action lawsuit revolves around the promotion and sale of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) made popular by global icons across media and sports.
One of those stars, Shaq, endorsed the project named Astrals, which would sport his iconic silhouette and feature his likeness. O’Neal would allow the company to use his likeness and it was alleged that the self-styled “Big Aristotle” would endorse the sale of the 10,000 3D NFT avatars.
The verdict in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, was presided over by Judge Federico Moreno, according to Yahoo Finance.
O’Neal had created 10,000 NFTs as part of the Shaq Gives Back campaign for his charity, The Shaquille O’Neal Foundation. The post has now been removed from the charity website, but read:
“Shaquille O’Neal is jumping on the new NFT bandwagon to do good deeds. The NBA legend recently partnered with The Notables to create unique images of himself and sell them.”
Judge Moreno oversaw court statements and documents that showed the basketball icon did endorse the platform, even in the face of similar entities like FTX collapsing in 2022. It is alleged that O’Neal was the public face of the platform and statements such as “Hop on before its too late” endorsed and fueled the sales of the NFTs.
One such document is believed to show O’Neal vehemently endorsing the platform via a Discord post, saying “I’m not F***ing Leaving.” Then he fled the project and the Astrals infrastructure caved in on itself, losing investors their stake and the worth of their tokens.
Judge Moreno ruled out one allegation in the case that O’Neal was a “control person”, saying that the star did not have control of the inner workings of the platform.
O’Neal’s camp also argued that he was not in a director or decision-making capacity, but Judge Moreno disagreed. The Judge stated that the evidence before him painted the picture that the basketball legend was a “seller.” a registered body, and public face associated with the Astrals that influenced the sale and worth of the tokens.
The legal representative for the collective of investors, Adam Moskowitz, stated “We are extremely fortunate that Judge Moreno authored the first extensive ruling on cryptocurrency and celebrity promotions.”
The NBA superstar and off-court legend must respond to the allegations as the verdict places him in the influencer category for the failed unregistered securities. O’Neal and Astrals have until September 12 to do so.
Image: The Shaquille O’Neal Foundation.
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