Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary defends partnership with FTX

Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary has spoken out to defend his work as a paid spokesperson for defunct crypto exchange FTX, despite his previous comments about slamming the cryptocurrency.

O’Leary appeared on CNBC on Friday where he faced difficult questions about his $15 million deal to become an ambassador for the company founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, who was arrested this week on financial crime charges.

When asked why he didn’t speak out more strongly to condemn Bankman-Fried’s alleged misconduct, O’Leary replied, “This is America. The judiciary assumes the presumption of innocence unless proven otherwise.”

“I have no facts,” he added. “Many bad things have been said here, and many of them will probably be true.”

Referring to a 2019 TV appearance in which O’Leary called Bitcoin “garbage,” CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked him if it was FTX’s big payday that changed his mind.

O’Leary appeared on CNBC on Friday where he faced tough questions about his $15 million deal to become an ambassador for collapsed crypto exchange FTX

Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded and ran FTX, is escorted out of the Magistrates Court building Tuesday after his arrest in Nassau, Bahamas

However, O’Leary insisted that his views changed and became more positive as he learned more about cryptocurrency.

“The point is that it took me a long time to become a paid speaker. Long before that,” he said of his bullish move into crypto.

O’Leary previously announced that he had invested all proceeds from his FTX sponsorship deal in company equity and deposits in FTX accounts, both of which are now worthless.

But he said on Friday he would like to see small customers recover their deposits in bankruptcy court before his losses are addressed.

“The shareholders, which I am, I don’t think we should get anything back. We’re venture investors, we’re big boys, we’ve lost our money, we get it,” he said.

“I don’t want anything back until the people who had money in their accounts get their money back.”

Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary pledged $15m to become an FTX ambassador – but now admits he lost all the money and institutional investors like him “look like idiots”.

Last week, O’Leary revealed that he lost all $15 million he received from FTX following the crypto firm’s collapse.

O’Leary struck a deal for the record-breaking amount when he signed up to be the company’s ambassador in August 2021.

After the fees associated with the deal, he was left with about $9.7 million worth of crypto in his FTX account, plus $1 million in equity in the company.

That’s all worthless now after FTX filed for bankruptcy last month and Bankman-Fried was ousted as CEO amid a spate of criminal investigations into the company.

O’Leary accepted on CNBC that he had fallen victim to “groupthink” and admitted that all of the company’s institutional investors now “look like idiots.”

He was recently named in a lawsuit against FTX and its celebrity backers, which also included Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Shaquille O’Neal, Steph Curry and Larry David.

O’Leary said Thursday: “[The] The whole deal was just under $15 million including a bunch of agents I had to pay.

Tom Brady and his now ex-wife Gisele Bundchen appeared in an FTX commercial last year. They are named in a class action lawsuit alleging the company’s collapse cost consumers $11 billion

He added: “I put about $9.7 million into crypto, I think that’s what I lost, it’s all from scratch. I don’t know because a few weeks ago my account was scrapped – all data, all coins, everything.

“Then I also lost the money I invested in the stock. Those are zeros too. It wasn’t a good investment.’

He continued, “I obviously know all the institutional investors in this business. We all look like idiots – let’s put that on the table.”

“Not a single dollar I’ve lost belongs to anyone but mine. That’s important to me because that’s a problem,” O’Leary said.

He previously touted FTX’s “compliance” systems. Since the company’s collapse, investigators have been investigating whether serious compliance issues contributed to the scandal.

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried manipulated the market for two cryptocurrencies, leading to their collapse and the implosion of his own cryptocurrency exchange.

Prosecutors are investigating whether he controlled the prices of two related currencies, TerraUsd and Luna, in May to benefit companies he controls, including FTX and Alameda Research, the New York Times reported.

The disgraced prodigy faces a series of further investigations after filing for bankruptcy last month.

Regulators around the world, including the Bahamas, where FTX is based, and the United States are investigating the role of FTX’s top executives, including Bankman-Fried, in the company’s stunning collapse.

O’Leary is among a number of A-list celebrities who have publicly endorsed the disgraced crypto trading platform FTX.

They are now being sued in an $11 billion class action lawsuit.