Posted on 03/16/2023 10:50:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary faced a grilling Tuesday night for allowing his companies to do business with Silicon Valley Bank – despite repeatedly referring to doomed firm’s management as “idiots” this week.
During an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” O’Leary admitted that “many companies” in his private equity portfolio had deposits in SVB prior to its collapse.
That included the crypto firm Circle, which had a whopping $3 billion tied up in the bank.
“This bank was run by idiots with an incompetent board. It’s one bank, no one ever heard the name before,” O’Leary said.
The response led the show’s host Sean Hannity to press O’Leary about his decision to park his money at SVB.
“Kevin, you’re a smart guy,” Hannity said. “Why did you keep your money there if it was run by idiots?”
O’Leary, who did not reveal the extent of his financial exposure to SVB, quickly went on the defensive.
“It’s one of many, many banks I keep my money in,” O’Leary replied. “And look, I’m a big boy. And my whole point is, if you have more than $250,000 in any institution, you’re basically a hedge fund or a savvy investor or a business. You understand your risk and you act accordingly.”
“So, I think the Fed’s mandate about keeping FDIC insurance at $250,000 makes sense to me. But we changed all that over the weekend,” he added.
O’Leary, a prominent investor in tech startups and other sectors, blasted federal officials over the bailout, which, he argued, will effectively “nationalize the American banking system.”
“What I would have preferred is to allow this bank, run by idiots – and I’m sorry to say these harsh words, but it’s a fact,” O’Leary said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Not a Hannity fan but it is a reasonable question.
I like his answer though. It’s his money he can choose to loose it if he wants is basically what he said.
Yep, definitely loose money 🤑
Technically nobody knows they are idiots until they do something idiotic.............................
Obviously, that bank of the elites was politically “plugged in”. That’s probably the real reason.
Isn’t this the dude that also invested considerable money with that Ponzi scheme weird dude?
Interesting answer given that O’leary railed against bailing out SVB.
What actually happened isn’t always apparent until some sh*t goes down like this, and then you learn they were idiots or criminals. Everything is all good until it’s not! I would give Kevin a pass on this one.
Yes, O’Leary was big into FTX and recommended it to others.
no money = Dry Land
Bernie Madoff?
Hindsight is 20 20.
No the FTX guy. Somebody just posted this.
lol. He was loose with it to lose it.
Maybe because he knew the fix was in?
Oh yeah, that was the guy that was allegedly helping to launder foreign aid to Ukraine back to Washington politicos and also giving to every democratic cause under the sun.
The non-idiots will have recognized it as idiotic, though, the idiots will not.
Zactly
Just 6 weeks prior they were the darling of Forbes Magazine...
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