Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary reveals he lost entire $15 MILLION in FTX collapse trends now
Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary has revealed he lost all of the $15 million he was paid by FTX following the crypto firm’s collapse.
O’Leary struck a deal for the bumper amount when he signed on to be an ambassador for the firm run by Sam Bankman-Fried in August 2021.
After fees involved in the deal, he was left with about $9.7million worth of crypto in his FTX account, plus $1million equity in the company.
That’s all now worthless after FTX filed for bankruptcy last month and Bankman-Fried was ousted as CEO amid a series of criminal probes into the company.
O’Leary accepted on CNBC that he fell prey to ‘groupthink’ and admitted all of the institutional investors in the company now looks ‘like idiots’.
Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary struck a $15 million to become an ambassador for FTX - but now admits he's lost all the money and institutional investors like him 'look like idiots'
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He was recently named in a lawsuit filed against FTX and its celebrity backers, who also included Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Shaquille O’Neal, Steph Curry and Larry David.
O’Leary said on Thursday: ‘[The] total deal was just under $15m all in, including a bunch of agents that I had to pay.’
He added: ‘I put about $9.7million into crypto, I think that’s what I’ve lost, it’s all at zero. I don’t know because my account got scraped a couple of weeks ago - all the data, all the coins, everything.
‘Then I lost the money that I invested in the equity as well. Those are zeros too. It was not a good investment.’
Sam Bankman-Fried recruited a list of A-list celebrities as ambassadors for FTX. He's pictured with Gisele Bundchen at a crypto event in the Bahamas earlier this year
O'Leary signed up with the firm in August 2021. He's now named in a lawsuit along with several other celebrity FTX ambassadors who are accused of being collectively 'responsible for the many billions of dollars in damages' they caused investors
He continued: ‘I obviously know all
