EXCLUSIVE RADAR INVESTIGATION: Shaq & Man Suing Him Both Have A Lot To Hide

RadarOnline.com broke the news Wednesday that Darling, who once worked for O'Neal, had filed a multi-count lawsuit in Miami-Dade County, Florida, accusing Shaq of breaking into the voicemail of Vanessa Lopez, his former mistress.

On Wednesday, O'Neal's attorney blasted Darling's lawsuit, revealing the former employee has a lengthy criminal record and calling the basis for his claims, "complete and utter fabrication."

Darling told RadarOnline.com that his criminal background was precisely "why Shaq hired me" -- something O'Neal adamantly denies.

But a source close to the situation claims to RadarOnline.com that Shaq is telling the truth-that he didn't know about Darling's criminal past when he hired him.

"He didn't know. Shaq's the type of person who, if he likes you, he trusts you," the source told RadarOnline.com. "He doesn't bother with checking. But after he found out, he didn't know what to do about Shawn.

"He knew Shawn had access to his computer and all of his emails and he was afraid that if he fired him, Shawn might go public with everything.

"Believe me, Shawn has emails from Shaq where he tells friends, 'this dude has a criminal record, he belongs in jail,' but I bet you won't see those emails ever surface."

Those emails allegedly include correspondence between O'Neal and various girlfriends, including Lopez and Dominica Westling.

But in a new discovery uncovered by RadarOnline.com, the same source also claims that O'Neal did hack into Lopez's voicemail as Darling alleges, changed the passwords to the date of his grandmother's death and then tried to cover his tracks.

"Shaq definitely harassed Vanessa and hacked into her phone," the source alleged to RadarOnline.com.

"He broke into her voicemail 14 times, and changed the passwords to the date of his grandmother's death.