After legal drama, Shaquille O'Neal reaches settlement in FTX class action lawsuit

Basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal and FTX customers have reached a settlement agreement years after starring in a commercial for the now bankrupt crypto exchange. 

O'Neal and the plaintiffs reached an "amicable proposed resolution," according to a court document filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The terms of the settlement will stay confidential until a motion is filed seeking preliminary approval, the filing read. 

The class action lawsuit was brought in late 2022 by Edwin Garrison, an Oklahoma man who says he bought an unregistered security from FTX after seeing the company's advertisements. Garrison filed the lawsuit on behalf of others impacted by the fallout, and claimed that promoters named in the suit failed to do due diligence before marketing the company to the public while also not disclosing the nature, scope or amount they were paid to do so. 

According to previous The Block reporting, the lawsuit took some dramatic turns in 2023 when lawyers tried to serve O'Neal at least 20 times. Later, O'Neal said court papers were "tossed" at his car in Georgia; thus, he was never actually served. Finally, a few weeks later, O'Neal was served in Miami at the Kaseya Center (formerly FTX Arena) during Game 4 of the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals. 

Class action lawsuits have been filed against other high-profile celebrities, including Tom Brady, Gisele Bünchen and Larry David. FTX filed for bankruptcy in late 2022, and the exchange's CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was found guilty in November 2023 of seven criminal counts. 

O'Neal has said he was "just a paid spokesperson for a commercial" following FTX's bankruptcy.