Shaq Got Nearly $750,000 From FTX Amid Millions In Celebrity Deals

Failed cryptocurrency change FTX paid out lots of of hundreds of {dollars} in high-profile advertising and sponsorship offers to celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal, Naomi Osaka, and David Ortiz, amongst others, in accordance with courtroom paperwork in its ongoing chapter procedures. 

In a courtroom submitting submitted to the U.S. Chapter Court docket in Delaware by FTX’s present administration, the corporate disclosed an in depth record of celebrities, companies, and sports activities groups that obtained funds over time as a part of its advertising blitz. 

The corporate acknowledged that the record itself “could not replicate an exhaustive record of all deposits and repayments,” however stated that it’s working to establish all excellent funds made in prior years to see how a lot of this may be clawed again to cowl its money owed.

The record consists of funds made to many celebrities featured prominently as FTX promoters earlier than it collapsed. 

In response to the submitting, FTX paid near $750,000 to former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, about $308,000 to tennis star Naomi Osaka, nearly $206,000 to Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, and about $271,000 to former Boston Purple Sox participant David Ortiz. 

A few of these celebrities had been already topic to lawsuits by FTX collectors over their promotion of the corporate, which in the end imploded final November. O’Neal and Osaka had been each included in a class-action lawsuit filed in a Florida federal courtroom in Might that accuses them of illegally selling interest-bearing accounts that had been truly unregistered securities. 

For years, FTX and its now-disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried put a whole lot of effort into glitzy promotions that featured the wealthy and highly effective. 

SBF ceaselessly hosted company at his residence in The Bahamas like NFL quarterback Tom Brady, former President Invoice Clinton, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The corporate went as far as to buy the naming rights for the Miami Heats’ Stadium, and spent over $6 million for a 30-second Tremendous Bowl advert in February. 

The present FTX crew is exploring its choices for clawing again the funds doled out to promoters over time as one strategy to pay again its substantial money owed. Nevertheless, it acknowledged that the ultimate quantity recovered “could differ materially from the quantities reported” within the submitting.