Shaquille O’Neal refused to pay $12 million after reportedly planting child p*rn on ex-employee’s computer

Shaquille O’Neal found himself muddled in a lawsuit with an ex-employee who sued him for planting child p*rn on his computer. 

Shaquille O’Neal has been very honest about his private life ever since he came into the public eye 3 decades ago. After getting drafted out of LSU by the Orlando Magic first overall in 1992, ‘The Big Aristotle’ made it clear that he was already one of the league’s best big men by winning Player of the Week honors his first week in the NBA. 

Ever since then, sports media couldn’t get enough of the 7-footer and his charisma. Of course, being in the public eye means every little move of yours is put through a microscope for potential scrutiny. 

This is what happened with Shaquille O’Neal who, despite being married to Shaunie O’Neal and having multiple children with her, had extra-marital relations with several other women. He’s owned up to these mistakes of his saying, “I was being greedy- I don’t make excuses, I know I messed up.” 

In the midst of these relations of his however, Shaq got dragged into quite the nasty lawsuit at the turn of the 2010s decade by an ex-employee of his, Shawn Darling.

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Shawn Darling filed a lawsuit against Shaquille O’Neal. 

Shawn Darling was Shaq’s IT consultant during his final days in Miami and his short stint with the Phoenix Suns. During this time, the 4x champ, according to Shawn’s lawyer, allowed Shawn to set up various mail accounts to help keep in touch with various mistresses of his. 

However, Shaquille O’Neal would soon realize that he’s given unprecedented access to another man to accounts that could ruin his reputation in the public eye. This is all according to Darlin’s defense as O’Neal’s defenses alleges that the IT consultant stole this information from him and planned to extort him for $12 million, a fee Shaq refused to pay. 

This led to the Lakers legend working with a law firm to sue Darling for possession of child p*rnography on his computer. 

Darling was first brought on by Shaq to help him trace emails he had sent to a woman named Alexis Miller who accused him of harassing her. In the process, Darling would find messages exchanges between another woman, Vanessa Lopez, and him and delete messages and even change her password. 

Essentially, the lawsuit that was placed against Shaquille O’Neal claims he has threatened him and tried to silence him all while trying to frame him for the possession of child p*rnography. 

On the flipside, Benjamine Reid (Shaq’s lawyer) says that Darling put himself in a position to be able to steal sensitive information from his client and then asked for $12 million to have that information returned to him.

Also read: Charles Barkley given a massive $50-75 million a year boost to leave Shaquille O’Neal and Inside the NBA