Kevin O’Leary made $4.3M in profit on FTX investment despite claimed loss

In an interview with CNBC on December 8th, it was revealed that Kevin O’Leary made a $4.3 million profit from his FTX investment. Despite this, he publicly claims to be angry about losing money on the exchange.

The figures indicate that the famous Shark Tank TV star invested $1 million in equity and also held $9.7 million worth of crypto on the exchange. O’Leary was also paid $15 million by FTX to be their official spokesperson and has previously been open about this FTX role, however, O’Leary never disclosed the sums FTX were paying him.

"The institutional interest in FTX on the US equity was unbelievable. Not a single dollar that I lost was anyone else's money except for mine," says @kevinolearytv. "I put about $9.7 million into crypto. I think that's what I lost. I'm all at zero. It was not a good investment." pic.twitter.com/RDj2hlcAk3

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) December 8, 2022

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Since the collapse of FTX, O’Leary has been defensive of his curly haired employer Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and has refused to acknowledge that SBF engaged in any illegal conduct. He retweeted Bill Ackman’s messages of support for SBF and even claimed that he would re-invest in SBF once he is found innocent of any expected fraud charges. 

However, O’Leary’s blind support for FTX and SBF is not surprising, now that we know he was paid so handsomely to promote the exchange.

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