© Reuters
Investing.com – Investor and Shark Tank guru Kevin Orly said Thursday that he was paid $15 million by FTX to serve as a paid spokesperson for a now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange that some have described as fraudulent.
O’Leary and other celebrities, such as Tom Brady and Larry David, have been sued by FTX investors who argued that stock ambassadors should have done more due diligence and exercised more diligence before fostering an empire.
The Canadian investor was criticized by hosts of CNBC’s “Squawk Box” for failing to properly assess the risks associated with investing in and promoting FTX. O’Leary said he fell prey to “groupthink” and none of his investment partners lost any money.
“The total deal was just under $15 million, and I invested about $9.7 million in cryptocurrency,” O’Leary told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Thursday morning. “I think that’s what I missed. I don’t know. It’s all zero.”
Orly also said it has more than $1 million in FTX shares, which are now worthless after the digital exchange filed for bankruptcy protection. According to Orly, the remainder of just over $4 million was gobbled up by taxes and agent fees.
Orly has been aggressively promoting FTX on Twitter and online, touting its close relationship with disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fred, who is facing multiple investigations.
When Orly started promoting FTX, he said it was FTX’s compliance rules that led him to invest in the cryptocurrency exchange.
Ultimately, FTX’s new CEO John Ray’s filing for bankruptcy protection in Delaware would characterize FTX’s risk, audit and compliance practices as “a complete failure of corporate controls.” “It was not a good investment,” O’Leary said Thursday.
