Shaquille O’Neal is suing his business partner over allegedly squandering a $125k cannabis investment. The company has been identified as Viceroy LLC according to court documents.
The court documents allege that O’Neal invested USD$100,000 into the cannabis business in 2016. However, a year later, the company still had no licenses, revenue or operations.
The documents read: “By late 2017, Viceroy seemingly had no licenses, no revenue, and no operations, questions arose regarding defendants’ management of Viceroy and use of the invested funds.”
The suit was filed this week by O’Neal and a second investor, Jerome Crawford. Crawford has reportedly invested USD$50,000 into the company. Both men claimed they wanted to “to pursue opportunities in the field of legal cannabis.”
Legal action
Documents report that O’Neal and Crawford asked to see the financial statements and mentioned the lack of progress in 2018. However, there was no response to the request. They also asked for a business plan along with other documents. The defendants are named Darron Campbell, his LLC along with 10 John Does.
When legal action was threatened, Campbell allegedly offered to buy back their shares and provide the interest. Campbell is thought to have only made one payment and still owes USD$130,000 along with 10 per cent missed interest.
A message from Campbell to O’Neal and Crawford’s lawyers was included with the filing: “At this point, I am willing to agree to personally purchase the units [owned by Plaintiffs] over a period of time. If acceptable, I would pay Mr Crawford and Mr O’Neal on the first day of each quarter, a minimum of $10,000 until paid in full.”
Repayment and damages
The plaintiffs have asked for more than USD$1m in repayment and damages.
Shaquille is an American former professional basketball player for the NBA who retired in 2011. He is now a sports analyst on the US television program Inside the NBA. It is estimated he made almost $300m over 19 seasons.
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