Kevin O’Leary Tells Fox He Expects His FTX Money Back as SBF Sentencing Looms: The ‘Promise of Crypto Remains’
Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary declared the “promise of crypto” remains on Thursday just ahead of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was found guilty last year of stealing billions from customers.
Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer brought on one of Bankman-Fried’s victims in O’Leary who previously had an account with FTX. The entrepreneur said he actually expects his loss to be made whole. Bankman-Fried is facing potentially decades behind bars for his fraud.
O’Leary said:
Yes, it is a remarkable situation. The way you can see the value of these claims, and anybody that had an account probably filed a claim, basically all the accounts were swept clean and there was nothing in it, but we had records of what was held there prior to the collapse of FTX. So Each month over the last year the hedge fund markets that fund these claims, in other words I could sell my claim for 80 cents, 82 cents, 88 cents, 90 cents, etc. as we’re get closer, but because Bitcoin … had such dramatic rises in value, many of these claims will be made close to whole or, if not, better than whole, which it is extraordinary. Remember, we were looking for $7 billion. It Looks like it has been found. There is precedence to this. Many of the claimants in the Madoff case were made close to whole and it looks like it that’s going to happen here.
Hemmer asked how so many influential people could be ripped off by Bankman-Fried.
“Remember his parents who you showed going into court were compliance lawyers at Stanford. He was an American citizen running an American exchange at the time in 2021 when crypto had so much promise,” O’Leary said.
He insisted Bankman-Fried is part of a group of “crypto cowboys” being moved out of the crypto market in favor of a “a new generation that are compliant.”
“These pioneers sacrificed their lives and they’re gone. They did what they did,” O’Leary said. “It was unnecessary to do that stuff, but the promise of crypto remains by the fact that, as we speak, we’ve got a $70,000 Bitcoin.”
Watch above via Fox News.
