Kevin O’Leary Defends Sam Bankman-Fried

Investor and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary told Yahoo Finance in an interview that he regards former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried as innocent until his alleged fraud is proven.

The narrative on the @FTX_Official situation is quickly changing from “throw everyone in jail” to “where is my money?” Time for a forensic audit and some facts! pic.twitter.com/MdHy4Dqt5F

— Kevin O’Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) December 6, 2022

In recent days, the co-founder of the collapsed exchange has given several interviews, for which he has faced criticism from the community.

Founder of Galaxy Digital Mike Novogratz called his statements “nonsense”, former MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor accused him of “shitcoinery” and unethical. The head of Binance Changpeng Zhao called Bankman-Fried “one of the greatest fraudsters in history”.

O’Leary did not go that far.

“I’m the kind of person who believes: \”You’re innocent until proven otherwise.\” That’s my belief, and I need facts. So if you tell me you did or didn’t do something, I’ll believe you. Until I find out that it’s a lie,” the investor said.

In his view, an audit of the collapsed platform is needed to recover at least some of investors’ money. He noted that, thanks to blockchain technology, all of the exchange’s transactions are 100% verifiable, and “the truth will be known.”

“If someone broke the law, they will be held to account,” emphasised O’Leary.

He added that he is confident in getting funds back, since he is in this situation too.

“We all need a way to recover, but we don’t have one,” the investor concluded.

In November, O’Leary admitted that he sympathizes with Bankman-Fried. He called him a brilliant trader and expressed a willingness to support him if a new project is launched.

Earlier, broker Jordan Belfort, known as “The Wolf of Wall Street”, called FTX “an outright scam” in a crypto-focused podcast.

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