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Tag: Kevin O Leary

  • Who Lost Money in FTX? Tom Brady, Kevin O’Leary and More | Entrepreneur

    Who Lost Money in FTX? Tom Brady, Kevin O’Leary and More | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Additional reporting by Sherin Shibu.

    The collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto empire was not only felt by those deep in the crypto community — some big-name entrepreneurs and celebrities lost a lot of money, too.

    Although SBF allegedly led investors to believe he could bring them high returns with little risk, more than a million people may have been affected by the collapse, and big-spending-crypto-newbies quickly found out that trading crypto isn’t for the faint of heart.

    RELATED: Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Multibillion-Dollar Crypto Fraud

    In November, Bankman Fried was found guilty on seven counts of fraud, embezzlement, and criminal conspiracy for orchestrating “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history” after a bank run exposed an $8 billion hole in company accounts and a piggy bank relationship with Alameda Research crypto trading firm.

    Bankman-Fried was sentenced on Thursday in a Manhattan federal court to 25 years in prison.

    Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan said that Bankman-Fried was “extremely smart” and agreed with prosecutors that Bankman-Fried “wanted to be a hugely, hugely politically influential person in this country.”

    Kaplan stated that the loss amount to the victims of Bankman-Fried’s crimes surpassed $550 million and that investors lost billions.

    Meanwhile, FTX’s new CEO John Ray, who stepped in for SBF after the company filed for bankruptcy, said the company has located $5 billion in cash and other assets, and while they are not done discovering unearthed funds, they plan to also sell over $4.6 billion in additional holdings as well.

    It’s unclear how the recovered funds will be divvied up, but typically in bankruptcy proceedings, only bond-holders are eligible to recoup a portion of their losses, while those with equity stakes are left at a loss, according to Markets Insider.

    Sequoia Capital likely suffered the greatest loss for an outside investor in the exchange with its $200 million investment, which peaked at $350 million in January 2022, according to data obtained by Forbes.

    RELATED: Who Is FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried?

    While Sequoia reportedly told investors its FTX investment was offset by its $7.5 billion in realized and unrealized gains, Singapore investment company Temasek didn’t get as lucky.

    The company reportedly invested $210 million for 1% of FTX and $65 million for 1.5% of FTX U.S. but has since determined its stakes to zero.

    Additionally, investment company Paradigm is said to have invested $215 million, while the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan invested $75 million, and has since written its investment to zero.

    Here’s a look at some of the famous faces who lost big in the FTX crypto collapse.

    Tom Brady

    Tom Brady is the most famous face to promote and invest in FTX — and he also may have suffered the greatest individual loss. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback owned over 1.1 million common shares of FTX Trading, which equaled about $45 million before the company went bankrupt, according to Bloomberg.

    While his investment is now zero in the wake of the collapse, he previously advocated for the exchange and appeared in several promotional ads with his now ex-wife Gisele Bündchen.

    Gisele Bündchen

    Along with her now ex-husband, Tom Brady, the supermodel also lost a significant portion of her wealth in the exchange. Bündchen reportedly owned 680,000 FTX shares, which were valued at about $25 million.

    Kevin O’Leary

    The Shark Tank entrepreneur was a fierce advocate for SBF’s FTX before the crypto exchange’s fall. As a paid spokesperson for the company, O’Leary owned 32,000 shares in FTX and 110,000 shares of FTX US. He said his shares were valued at $1 million during a U.S. Senate Banking Committee in December, adding that he has since “written them off to zero.”

    O’Leary told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in December that he was paid around $15 million to act as a paid spokesperson for the brand and put just under $10 million into the crypto exchange. But he said his crypto investment is now equal to zero.

    Robert Kraft

    New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft also fell victim to FTX. He reportedly owned about 630,000 total FTX-related shares through KPC Venture Capital LLC, an entity connected to the Kraft Group.

    Using O’Leary’s valuation, the NFL team owner may have lost an eight-figure investment.

    Robert Belfer

    Billionaire oil baron Robert Belfer, who was once known as the heir to bankrupt gas company Enron, also reportedly lost millions with FTX’s collapse. Two firms linked to the Belfer family held shares in both FTX and FTX US with a combined stake of $34.5 million, according to court documents obtained by the Financial Times. Belfer was also notably entangled in Bernie Madoff’s infamous Ponzi Scheme.

    Anthony Scaramucci

    Donald Trump’s former communications director was also wrapped up in the FTX collapse with his alternative investment company, SkyBridge Capital. Last September, FTX acquired 30% of SkyBridge Capital, per The Street, and while the details of the deal are unknown, Scaramucci said he was also at a loss despite the purchase.

    “We lost money in general because the overall portfolio is going down as a result of this debacle, so yes I guess yes,” he said when asked about the collapse in November at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.

    RELATED: ‘I Didn’t Steal Funds, and I Certainly Didn’t Stash Billions Away’: Sam Bankman-Fried Speaks for the First Time Since His Arrest

    Stephen Curry

    Stephen Curry was one of the many celebrities to endorse FTX with his various commercials and his 2021 partnership with the brand. Like Brady and Bündchen, Curry also got a stake in FTX for his work with the company.

    Curry’s team, the Golden State Warriors, was also entangled in the scandal after FTX agreed to pay $10 million for an international rights sponsorship deal that gave the exchange in-area signage, exclusive brand placements, and the rights to the team’s NFTs in December 2021.

    Curry is also named in a class action lawsuit that claims the celebrities who endorsed FTX participated in deceptive strategies to “induce confidence and to drive consumers to invest in what was ultimately a Ponzi scheme,” according to the lawsuit.

    Sam Bankman-Fried, Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Kevin O’Leary, Shaquille O’Neal, Udonis Haslem, David Ortiz, William Trevor Lawrence, Shohei Ohtani, Naomi Osaka, and Larry David were also mentioned in the suit.

    Naomi Osaka

    Tennis star Naomi Osaka also signed a long-term partnership agreement with FTX in March that was supposed to help bring women into the crypto world, according to Reuters. She was given an equity stake in the company and received compensation in the form of crypto.

    David Ortiz

    Red Sox baseball legend David Ortiz also signed on to be an FTX ambassador in October 2021 and agreed to be compensated in cryptocurrency, per CoinDesk. At the time, he agreed to release multiple NFT collections, while FTX agreed to sponsor the David Ortiz Celebrity Golf Classic and donate to the David Ortiz’s Children’s Fund. It’s unclear if the fund will be required to repay the donations if they are found to have been made with customer money.

    Check out our Dirty Money Podcast for our take on Crypto Crook Sam Bankman-Fried.

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    Sam Silverman

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  • Kevin O’Leary Disagrees With Martha Stewart About Remote Work | Entrepreneur

    Kevin O’Leary Disagrees With Martha Stewart About Remote Work | Entrepreneur

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    As more and more companies move employees back into the office, a slew of big-name business executives, from Martha Stewart to Elon Musk, have publicly stated their anti-remote work views, saying employees should be working in offices and not at home “in pajamas.”

    But as the debate rages on, “Shark Tank” star and investor Kevin O’Leary is taking a somewhat surprising stance on the matter.

    Appearing on FOX’s “Outnumbered,” O’Leary said companies should be offering remote work in today’s corporate climate, not shying away from it.

    “The economy has changed radically. The problem with saying everybody has to work in the office is you won’t be able to hire the best talent,” O’Leary said, noting that increased crime in cities like San Francisco is deterring people from returning to offices, whereas the lure of working in a big city pre-pandemic used to be attractive. “Nobody wants to work in these places. They’re war zones. So, they want to work where they get their jobs done.”

    O’Leary claimed in the segment that 40% of workers won’t return to offices, a big difference from the 15% that experts estimated two years ago.

    Related: ‘You Can’t Possibly Get Everything Done’: Martha Stewart Slams Remote Work, on ‘Rampage’ to Get Workers Back in the Office

    O’Leary alleged that some office buildings are “never going to fill up again” and that many will “have to be converted into condos or climate-controlled storage.”

    His comments are in response to an interview that Stewart gave with Footwear News this week in which she revealed that she was on a “rampage” to end remote work as she believes it breeds a lack of productivity.

    “You can’t possibly get everything done working three days a week in the office and two days remotely,” Stewart told the outlet. “Should America go down the drain because people don’t want to go back to work?”

    Related: After Being Told They Could Work From Home Forever, Employees Made Major Life Changes. Then the New CEO Ordered Them Back to the Office.

    O’Leary suffered major losses earlier this year amid the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, revealing that he had moved his assets to five different financial institutions.

    His estimated net worth as of Friday morning was $400 million.

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    Emily Rella

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  • Entrepreneur | Kevin O’Leary Bites Back at Critics After Controversial Tweet

    Entrepreneur | Kevin O’Leary Bites Back at Critics After Controversial Tweet

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    Shark Tank‘s Kevin O’Leary has found himself swimming in shark-infested hot water after making a controversial statement on Twitter over the weekend.

    But Mr. Wonderful refuses to back down. On the contrary, he’s appeared on various news shows in the past few days, defending his statement and snapping back at his critics.

    The brouhaha started on Saturday morning when O’Leary tweeted: “You may lose your wife, you may lose your dog, your mother may hate you. None of those things matter. What matters is that you achieve success and become free. Then you can do whatever you like.”

    The tweet did not go over well with Twitter users, who found O’Leary’s no-holds-barred position lacking compassion and humanity.

    A Twitter user named @MasonVersluis tweeted: “Kevin, this is a soulless tweet! Being soulless has brought you massive success, however, you now need to tap into your inner higher self and stop focusing on the money! Hopefully, you know self and have not gotten your brand mixed up with the human!”

    @AlexKerner tweeted that O’Leary was too materialistic.

    Others took to tweeting adorable pictures of their dogs.

    Related: Kevin O’Leary Says This Is the ‘Safest Place on Earth’ to Keep Your Money After FTX Crypto Crash

    O’Leary responds

    O’Leary, who never met a controversy he couldn’t publicize, took to the airwaves this week to defend his position.

    He told CNN that he stands by his tweet “100 percent,” arguing that being an entrepreneur takes tremendous sacrifice.

    “If you’re an entrepreneur, you know exactly what I’m talking about because you need to sacrifice. You have to work 25 hours a day, eight days a week, because your competitors in Mumbai or Shanghai — they want to kick your butt. You have to win when you’re young and sacrifice everything so that you achieve freedom for your whole family later in life,” he said.

    O’Leary blasted his critics as not understanding the nature of entrepreneurship. “If you don’t get it, don’t worry about it cause you don’t fit the entrepreneurial mold,” he said. “If you’re not ready to work your ass off, you’re not an entrepreneur, get over it if that makes you uncomfortable. I couldn’t care less.”

    On Fox News, O’Leary doubled down, saying, “If that statement makes you uncomfortable, you are not an entrepreneur. Don’t even try.”

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    Jonathan Small

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