Former FTX Spokesman Kevin O’Leary Defends Crypto Firm’s Endorsement

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“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary defended his position as a spokesperson for bankrupt crypto firm FTX on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday.

“This is America. The legal system provides for the presumption of innocence unless proven otherwise,” O’Leary replied when asked why he hadn’t condemned Bankman-Fried more forcefully. The former FTX CEO was arrested by Bahamian authorities earlier this week, pending extradition and trial to face charges in US federal court.

O’Leary was pressed by CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, Joe Kernen and Becky Quick for his position as a paid FTX ambassador, his career in venture capital and his defense of Sam Bankman-Fried days before his arrest.

Kernen didn’t mince words with the Canadian businessman. “Do you still call yourself a venture capitalist?” the Squawk Box host asked O’Leary. “Your venture capital investment was your name to be used as a spokesperson?”

“Joe, bad news. I have a very large consulting business,” O’Leary shot back. Kernen continued to press O’Leary. “Are you still confusing the money you received from FTX that you lost, or did you actually invest some of your own funds?”

“Money is fungible,” O’Leary replied.

“So you didn’t. Again, you’re a venture capitalist who dared your name,” Kernan said. “You didn’t even pay your own money for taxes.”

O’Leary went on to walk back his lost $10 million investment in FTX, which was returned to him as part of his compensation for appearing as a paid spokesperson. Traditional venture investing typically involves a fund or individual investing their own funds in a business.

“They must have opened this round for me,” O’Leary said. “I have 54 companies in my portfolio right now.”

“Kevin, you’re a player in this drama, and you had a front row seat to Bankman-Fried until the very end,” Sorkin said. “What do you think happened?” Do you think it was a fraud?

“I don’t have the facts. [New FTX CEO] John Ray doesn’t have them yet. He’ll get them,” O’Leary replied. “I’m looking in my files. I am prepared to fund a legal accounting of our accounts.”

“There are a lot of bad things that have been alleged here, and a lot of them are likely to be true,” he added.

But at the same time, O’Leary said he wasn’t inclined to engage with outraged investors on Twitter.

“I understand the herd is angry,” said the businessman, also a CNBC contributor.

Sorkin also observed that, unlike Tom Brady or Larry David, investors might expect O’Leary to know better than most how to understand whether or not FTX was problematic.

“Companies advertise, and they do it that way,” O’Leary said.

Kernen also pressed O’Leary on his quick about-face on bitcoin.

“Did this conversion coincide with the $15 million you received from FTX?” Kernen asked. “No,” O’Leary said, saying his bitcoin investing started years before he became an ambassador for FTX in 2018.

But Sorkin pointed to a television appearance in 2019 and noted that O’Leary called bitcoin “trash.”

“So I’m wrong about that,” O’Leary said. “The thing is, that was long before I became a paid spokesperson. Long before.”

“I love getting sanded by you every day. It’s fantastic,” O’Leary concluded.

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

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