FTX Spokesman Kevin O’Leary Says He Lost $15M in Payday Crypto

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Investor, “Shark Tank” judge and CNBC contributor Kevin O’Leary said Thursday that he lost all of the $15 million FTX paid him to act as a spokesperson for the now-collapsed crypto exchange that some have called fraudulent.

O’Leary and other celebrities, such as Tom Brady and Larry David, have been sued by FTX investors who say the exchange’s ambassadors should have done more due diligence and exercised greater care before promote crypto empire.

The Canadian investor was questioned by the hosts of CNBC’s “Squawk Box” about his failure to properly assess the risks associated with investing and promoting FTX. O’Leary said he fell prey to “groupthink” and none of his investment partners lost money.

“The total transaction was just under $15 million, all inclusive,” O’Leary said. “I put about $9.7 million into crypto. I think that’s what I lost. I don’t know. It’s all zero.”

He also said he had more than $1 million in FTX equity, now rendered worthless by the bankruptcy protection process. The balance of just over $4 million would have been eaten up by taxation and agent fees, according to O’Leary.

O’Leary has promoted FTX aggressively on Twitter and online, touting his close ties to disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who is facing multiple investigations.

When O’Leary started promoting FTX, he said it was FTX’s compliance systems that made him invest in the crypto exchange.

“Finally resolved my compliance issues with #cryptocurrencies,” O’Leary wrote on LinkedIn and in a since-deleted August 2021 tweet.

Eventually, Delaware bankruptcy protection filings by new FTX CEO John Ray III would call FTX’s risk, audit, and compliance procedures “a complete failure of corporate controls.”

“It wasn’t a good investment,” O’Leary said Thursday.

Disclosure: CNBC has exclusive off-network cable rights to “Shark Tank.”

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