Kevin O’Leary Lost All His Crypto Earnings to FTX’s Collapse
- Kevin O’Leary previously called for FTX to be audited, adding that Bankman-Fried should be treated as innocent until proven guilty.
- The 68-year-old raised eyebrows after tweeting that he would still have Bankman-Fried on his team despite his failures and tainted image.
- The Canadian investor, however, admitted that investing in FTX was a poor decision.
Kevin O’Leary, an investor and “Shark Tank” judge, claimed on Thursday that he has lost the entire $15 million fortune that FTX paid him to serve as a spokesperson for the exchange. Kevin and other FTX ambassadors such as Larry David and Tom Brady were recently sued by aggrieved investors for endorsing the crypto firm without proper investigation.
While appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Kevin noted that he has hardly anything to show for his time with FTX. The popular investor was left with nothing after paying taxes, agent fees, a $1 million stock investment into the company, and purchasing a large quantity of cryptocurrency that is still trapped on the FTX exchange.
When quizzed about his failure to accurately understand the risks involved in investing in and promoting FTX, the Canadian businessman said that he was a victim of “groupthink” and that none of his business partners had suffered financial losses. He said,
Total deal was just under $15 million, all in. I put about $9.7 million into crypto. I think that’s what I lost. I don’t know. It’s all at zero. I don’t know cos my account got scraped a couple of weeks ago. All the data, all the coins, everything.
The television personality is estimated to have a net worth of over $400 million, and if such figures are to be believed, his $15 million loss will only be a scratch on the surface. However, the situation left Kevin with a big lesson. The 68-year-old admitted that FTX was not a “good investment,” adding that “I don’t make good investments all the time, luckily I make more good ones than bad ones, but that was a bad one.”
Kevin heavily promoted FTX on his social media, showcasing his close relationship with the company’s tainted founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, who is the subject of numerous investigations. The entrepreneur claimed that FTX’s compliance processes were what inspired him to invest in the cryptocurrency exchange. He said,
Sam Bankman-Fried is an American, his parents are American compliance lawyers. There were no other American large exchanges to invest in if you wanted to invest in infrastructure plays.
Kevin confirmed that he is actively investigating what happened to his funds on FTX and how to recover them. The famous investor revealed he had agreed to speak at the forthcoming Senate Committee hearing scheduled for December 14.
Lawrence has covered some exciting stories in his career as a journalist, he finds blockchain-related stories very intriguing. He believes Web3 will change the world and wants everyone to be a part of it.
