Kevin O’Leary, a Canadian businessman, and media personality has discussed the details of his appointment and investments with the defunct FTX exchange in an interview with CNBC.
The businessman claimed he was appointed Spokesman for the now-defunct FTX exchange. He also stated that the trading platform paid him $15 million in service fees but lost $9.7 million in cryptocurrency investments.
O’Leary stated that his investment with FTX was not profitable because he had over $1 million of FTX equity which has now been rendered useless due to its filing for bankruptcy protection.
Furthermore, O’Leary explained that the remaining balance from his $15 million of slightly more than $4 million was allegedly eaten up by taxation and agent fees. O’Leary claimed that FTX’s compliance processes were what inspired him to invest in the cryptocurrency exchange when he first started promoting it.
O’Leary appears to still support FTX’s former CEO, Sam Bank-man fried. He stated on Twitter that he has no problem funding business owners who have had disastrous failures because failure is sometimes the best teacher.
The businessman shared a Tweet that has long been deleted from his page following the collapse of FTX. According to the Tweet, O’Leary said he was going to increase his allocation in crypto by investing with the FTX exchange and also using the FTX platform to manage his portfolio.
NBC News also reported that O’Leary and other notable personalities were eventually sued by FTX investors for prompting the platform that cost them billions of dollars in damages.
The FTX Debacle
FTX exchange platform eventually filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. after failing to get investors to inject cash into the business after experiencing liquidity issues.
FTX announced via its official Twitter page that it has appointed Perella Weinberg Partners LP as a lead investment bank in its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.
A report from Insidecrypto also stated that the bankrupt exchange has started the process of preparing its business for sale or reorganization. The firm has added that it is seeking approval from the court to resume limited operations.
The CEO of Ripple Labs, Bradley Kent Garlinghouse, has stated that his company is interested in purchasing a portion of the failed FTX exchange. He also stated that Ripple is interested in other companies that make up the massive portfolio of the FTX cryptocurrency empire.
