Shaquille O’Neal has agreed to compensate investors associated with the Astrals NFT project who allegedly purchased unregistered securities, according to court filings Monday.
Under the proposed settlement, O’Neal and the related Astrals entities will pay $11 million in monetary relief to compensate settlement class members and fund legal fees. Pending court approval would bring an early end to O’Neal’s NFT-related legal issues.
The putative class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of investors in O’Neal’s Astrals project who purchased 10,000 Solana-based “Metaverse-powered avatars” or NFTs containing governance tokens tied to the project. Dao It’s called GLXY.
“With so many NFT and cryptocurrency bankruptcies, these great solutions come about because respected individuals like Shaq have stepped up to help other cryptocurrency victims,” said lead attorney Adam Moskowitz. decryption. “Shaq was a victim of the failed Astrals and FTX platforms.”
The lawsuit claimed O’Neal played an active role in promoting the Astral NFT before abandoning the project in 2022. He linked the project’s success to his celebrity status on social media, having generated interest in the project during his musical performances as DJ Diesel. .
Last August, a Florida federal judge partially dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that O’Neal could be considered a “seller” under securities laws. In what Moskowitz described as a “lucky moment,” it was determined that O’Neal did not need to make a “personalized” statement to get in trouble, but rather only had a financial motivation related to his online posts.
In Monday’s filing, the plaintiffs described the proposed settlement as an “excellent recovery,” pointing in part to “Astral Corporation’s current dire financial condition.”
In late October, Astrals told community members on Discord that the lawsuit had created an unbearable “financial burden” that bankruptcy seemed inevitable. As a result, Astrals stated that support for Astrals’ GLXY token must be discontinued.
As managing partner of the Moskowitz law firm, Moskowitz has led the prosecution of celebrity-driven cryptocurrency lawsuits. FTX Promoter. Defendants in the case include professional football legend Tom Brady and comedian Larry David. He participated in advertising for a cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed before being exposed as a large-scale fraud.
As the cryptocurrency market rocked in the aftermath of FTX, O’Neill reportedly made false promises before walking away from the project. “I’m not fucking leaving,” O’Neal said in a GIF from the movie “Wolf of Wall Street” posted on Astrals’ Discord. It is said to have been his last post.
Moskowitz praised O’Neal following the settlement offer, at one point saying: decryption “The biggest man is hiding from our lawsuit,” he said, referring to the FTX case. Moskowitz, struggling to provide a basketball persona, said O’Neal cat and mouse game.
After several attempts to provide services to O’Neal, the law firm finally allowed O’Neal to served outside his home Last year, only his lawyers were able to rebut and argue that the documents were on his behalf. was thrown into his car. A month later, during that time NBA game broadcastAt what was once known as the FTX Arena in Miami, O’Neal served in association with FTX and his Astrals project.
Before the Astrals’ settlement, O’Neal tried to have the lawsuit dismissed, using new arguments. For example, his lawyers argued last year that the digital assets in question were not intended for investors but rather gamers.
However, the lawsuit has decimated the project’s social media presence. For example, the last time Astrals posted on Twitter (aka X) was in December 2023.
“Gm Solana” Project wrote. “We are still alive.”
Editor: Andrew Hayward
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