NBA legend faces lawsuit over an NFT company collection titled ASTRALs
Basketball legend, Shaquille O’Neal, was delivered legal papers this week for over alleged securities violations for his NFT Collection. According to the BBC O’Neal has been accused of violating Section 15 of the Securities Act of 1933, which requires brokers to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and for offering and selling unregistered securities. The class action lawsuit alleges that Astrals NFTs offered for sale were unregistered securities and attached to promises made by the former NBA player.
Astrals, a Solana-based NFT project, comprised 10,000 “metaverse-ready” avatars that would be supported by a DAO and a “story-driven, play-to-earn role-playing game,”According to the lawsuit filing, O’Neal launched Astrals last year with his partner Brian Bayati as CEO and his son Myles O’Neal as the company’s head of investor relations. The complaint focuses on the various ways O’Neal promoted the project—on social media and during musical performances as DJ Diesel—and how he stopped engaging with the project’s community after the collapse of FTX.
"As crypto markets have tumbled over the past year and NFT collectors have found themselves with little to show for their investment, class action lawsuits have been filed around the country, alleging that companies like Yuga Labs and Dapper Labs shilled unregistered securities to a public that did not have the knowledge to accurately assess the novel assets they were buying." - Shantu Esalante-De Mattei
The two lawsuits brought against O’Neal are led by The Moskowitz Law Firm and Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, who are working in tandem. Although the former NBA Star was faces two lawsuits, he still has not been served in FTX lawsuit.
The Astrals lawsuit has been assigned to Federal Judge Moreno and Magistrate Goodman in Miami federal court. O’Neal has 20 days to respond to the suit, Moskowitz told FOS.
