If you’re not up to speed on the whole FTX crypto mess involving Sam Bankman-Fried, then your life is better for it. Just know that Michael Lewis is working on the book. You can wait for the movie.
Locally, though, the legal row has produced some action that’s worth keeping an eye on. A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Bankman-Fried and others associated with the crumbling of his crypto house of cards. Just a few folks named as defendants: Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Stephen
Curry, Udonis Haslem, David Ortiz, Shohei Ohtani, Naomi Osaka, Larry David, Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary, and, yes, Shaquille O’Neal.
Apparently everyone on that list but Shaq has been served notice of the lawsuit. Plaintiffs’ lawyers at this point are starting to get testy. So on Friday they asked the court to let them serve Shaq on social media and with this dedicated website. From their filing:
Defendant Shaquille O’Neal has had actual knowledge of the allegations against him in this matter since this suit was first filed November 15, 2022. While Plaintiffs understand that “actual knowledge” is not alone sufficient for effecting service, this fact is important to give context to Plaintiff’s request to serve him now via alternative methods. Mr. O’Neal’s conduct over the last 5 months in evading service in this action is unprecedented, and frankly shocking, based upon on the extent of his public appearances, persona, and presence. Mr. O’Neal is the sole remaining defendant in this matter who has still not been served. Despite Plaintiffs’ dozens of attempts in multiple states and countries, to either effect service on him or have him (or a designated agent) accept service of process.
Just last week, after the eighth most recent attempt at O’Neal’s Texas residence [Editor’s note: the filing later IDs the residence in Carrollton], Plaintiffs’ process server in Texas received a threatening text message stating “shaq lives in the Bahamas u stupid fuck give beth shaw my regards.” See Declaration of Joseph Kaye, filed concurrently herewith … . Beth Shaw is the wife of our retained process server. Enough is enough.
The filing mentions that Shaq, in fact, does not live in the Bahamas, and it includes the phone number from which the above text was sent. I called that number in an effort to get comment, to no avail.
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