On the CNBC pre-market news program Squawk Box, Binance CEO and co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) referred to Canadian investor and businessman Kevin O’Leary as “a liar.”
In his testimony at a Senate hearing on the FTX scandal on December 14, O’Leary claimed that Binance had forced FTX out of business in order to take over as the world’s monopoly. When Sam Bankman-Fried purchased FTX shares from Binance, O’Leary pointed out that some of the FTX funds were transferred to Binance.
CZ said that he was surprised by O’Leary’s response
CZ responded to O’Leary’s accusations by saying he was shocked by what O’Leary had said.
“Kevin O’Leary is making a bunch of nonsense claims. They don’t make sense, they don’t make any logic.”
Zhao claimed he was unconcerned about the funds of Kevin O’Leary or any other FTX users, even though it appears that all of O’Leary’s FTX funds have been lost. Additionally, the CEO of Binance doesn’t think O’Leary bought shares of FTX without being aware that Binance was also a shareholder.
CZ was asked in the interview if Binance was ready to give bankruptcy trustees the $2.1 billion payment it received from FTX when it sold its 2019 Series A investment.
If bankruptcy proceedings define that the payment was illegitimate or that the person should have had a decent understanding that the payment was fraudulent, any beneficiary within a two-year lookback window may be reclaimed by the trustee.
Zhao said that while Binance is “financially ok,” he would leave it to the “perfectly capable” lawyers to handle the situation.
The repayment was made using a combination of BUSD, BNB, and FTT, according to the CEO of Binance. The FTT portion of the repayment, he continued, was sizeable, but Binance had “forgotten” about it.
An entrepreneur and television personality from Canada named Kevin O’Leary recently discussed how he received $15 million to serve as the spokesperson for FTX during a CNBC interview.
He also mentioned how he lost everything as the exchange broke down. O’Leary also said that he was a victim of “groupthink.” Additionally, he mentioned his over $1 million in FTX equity, which is now worthless.