Sacha Baron Cohen Under Fire for O.J. Simpson Payment (EXCLUSIVE)

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has made a career pushing buttons — Borat anyone? However, he might have finally gone too far after he reportedly paid disgraced athlete O.J. Simpson $20,000 to appear in an upcoming project.

“Sacha has oped up a can of worms,” an insider told In Touch exclusively. O.J. was acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman in 1995 but was later found liable for their deaths in a civil suit brought against him by the victims’ families. He was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to the Goldmans and Browns, but they have yet to collect the full moment.

This means that any future earnings legally belong to both families. “If he’s making money,” adds the insider, “they expect to be paid at least a portion of what he still owes them.” O.J. was recently released from prison, after serving nine years behind bars for kidnapping and armed robbery. So, it’s no surprise the 70-year-old is back at work.

O.J. is currently residing in Las Vegas, after his request to move back to South Florida was denied, and his close friends revealed he has no plans to lay low. “He’s not going to hide,” his pal Tom Scotto told CNN. “He’s going to focus on kids, friends, his family, and golf. Maybe not the first day or second, but he is going to go out.”

As for Sacha, he recently tricked former RHOBH couple Gretchen Rossi and Slade Smiley into appearing on his fake reality show titled Security Makeover, which would allegedly air on the Israeli Network “YES.” Unfortunately, he was unable to convince The Hills stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag with the same prank.

the email from Sacha Baron Cohen tryna get Speidi pic.twitter.com/zzH0Eem3fd

— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) February 19, 2018

“They punked us for four-and-a-half hours! You would not believe the stuff they were asking us to do — the weirdest, creepiest, funniest stuff, but at the time it wasn’t funny,” Gretchen told Page Six. “We literally thought they were going to kill Slade! I was freaked out. I was crying. I was hysterical coming home. I’m sure they were laughing their asses off.” We wonder if O.J. made a cameo…

For more exclusive details, be sure to pick up the latest issue of In Touch magazine, on newsstands now.