Kevin O'Leary Made Several Attempts to Raise Money in Order to Save FTX.
In an interview with the Insider that was published on Sunday, Kevin O'Leary discussed the unsuccessful attempts he made to preserve the cryptocurrency exchange FTX before it went bankrupt. O'Leary has stakes in FTX in addition to his role as a paid advocate for the firm.
Before FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11, Mr. Wonderful had conversations with a number of potential investors who were interested in acquiring a share in the cryptocurrency exchange. According to what he informed the magazine, sovereign wealth funds were considering making an investment of $8 billion to help save FTX.
O'Leary revealed the following after mentioning that Bankman-Fried had phoned him to talk about the investments:
We just had time for a quick discussion. He had a highly logical mind. A couple items concerning the timeframe of that $6 billion to $8 billion were brought up for discussion, and we went over them. On the other hand, this was sufficient information for me to revisit the relevant sources in order to verify that the total was eight.
Mr. Wonderful mentioned that during their discussion, Bankman-Fried mentioned that regulators will "come down hard" on the incident.
However, once it was reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and other worldwide regulators were closing in on FTX, offers to save the company stopped coming in immediately. O'Leary went on to say:
Everyone who could have been interested had already left... I responded to Sam's text with the following... I responded by letting him know it wasn't going to be a possibility.
In spite of this, O'Leary is of the opinion that investors would have been more at ease maintaining their holdings in FTX if a sovereign wealth fund or other purchasers had contributed around $4 billion to the company. According to what he said, "so actually what was on the table and being contested all across the world was that you could acquire a $32 billion enterprise for $4 billion."
"There Will Be a Mountain of Litigation," Is What They Said.
According to Mr. Wonderful, who indicated that he has begun shifting his funds abroad, Canada is the only jurisdiction in the world that offers fully-regulated broker-dealer exchange accounts. The star of "Shark Tank" expressed his opinion that "we have trust that the regulatory framework in Canada scrutinizes accounts that can't be commingled," and he went on to say that he feels the market has not yet reached the bottom of the damage from the FTX scandal.
O'Leary offered the following opinion in response to the FTX hack that has shaken faith throughout the cryptocurrency industry:
There are a great number of claims circulating... There is no denying the fact that the current predicament is a challenging one. There will be an overwhelming number of legal cases.
O'Leary claims that he has never seen a more bright mind when it comes to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, despite the fact that regulators are looking into Bankman-Fried and the cryptocurrency sector is screaming fraud. He went on to describe:
He's a genius, that guy... As a result of the fact that he is most likely one of the most successful cryptocurrency traders in the world, I was quite impressed by him.
The star of "Shark Tank" stated the previous week that he would invest in Bankman-Fried once more if he had another business. The cryptocurrency industry is now in an uproar over this news since the majority of participants feel that the former CEO of FTX engaged in several fraudulent actions.
All of O'Leary's FTX interests are being written down, much like those of other FTX investors, such as the Temasek Holdings investment arm of the Singaporean government and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund. He made the following statement: "I'm writing it all the way down to zero... It is unclear what, if anything, can be retrieved.
In light of the statements made by Kevin O'Leary, what are your thoughts on them? Share your thoughts with us in the space below titled "Comments."
