Kevin O’Leary, a popular star of the show “Shark Tank,” and Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance and also known as “CZ,” engage in a verbal dispute over O’Leary’s accusations about Binance in relation to the FTX collapse. Because of his words, CZ ultimately referred to Kevin O’Leary as “a Liar.”
During a hearing on the failure of FTX held by a committee of the United States Senate in the United States, FTX paid spokesman O’Leary disclosed details of meetings had with Sam Bankman-Fried in the days leading up to the failure of FTX.
In response to Senator Patrick Toomey’s inquiry as to the reasons for FTX’s failure, O’Leary said, “I have an opinion. I don’t have the records,” and then launched into a tirade on how Binance is to blame for the demise of FTX.
O’Leary said that when he questioned SBF’s use of client cash over the last two years, he was told that nearly $3 billion had been spent on repurchasing shares of FTX that Binance owned. This information was provided to O’Leary in response to his inquiry.
According to what O’Leary said, “Apparently, according to Sam Bankman-Fried, CZ would not cooperate with the demands made by authorities in various countries to supply the data that would clear them [FTX] for a license […]” The only choice available to the management team and Sam Bankman-Fried was to buy him out for a staggering worth of close to $32 billion.
O’Leary believes that the balance sheet of FTX was negatively impacted as a result of Zhao’s decision to liquidate Binance’s holdings in FTX tokens (FTT) at the beginning of November in addition to the share acquisitions.
O’Leary criticized Binance by saying, “In my view, my personal opinion, these two […] in an unregulated market […] with this incredible business in terms of growth were at war with each other, and one put the other out of business on purpose.” O’Leary’s comments were a scathing indictment of Binance. Now, maybe there is nothing wrong with that; perhaps there is nothing wrong with love and war; nonetheless, Binance is now a giant uncontrolled worldwide monopoly, and they forced FTX out of business. “
While speaking at the CNBC pre-market news show Squawk Box, CZ said he was startled that O’Leary made these remarks.
CZ stated, “Kevin O’Leary is making a bunch of nonsense claims. They don’t make sense, they don’t make any logic.”
“I think Kevin is a liar. I think he’s lying about a bunch of stuff,” CZ added.
O’Leary’s assertion that he had invested in FTX without being aware that Binance was a stakeholder was the primary reason CZ labeled O’Leary as a liar. However, he was able to recollect the particulars of a transaction that CZ had finalized two years before in great detail.
Kevin O’Leary has recently been the target of criticism when he said that he will once again back SBF. O’Leary went on to say that the next time he would invest in Bankman-Fried, he would do it “in a different environment.”
“You can love him or hate him given what’s happened, but I think we can all admit he was one of the most brilliant traders in the crypto universe,” O’Leary stated in the interview.
Compiled by Coinbold
