Shark Tank’s investor Kevin O’Leary hit back against Changpeng Zhao, calling him a “liar,” in reply to a recent interview where the Binance CEO called O’Leary’s claims at a Senate hearing this week “nonsense.”
O’Leary testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the downfall of FTX, the now-bankrupt crypto exchange for which O’Leary was a paid spokesperson. While its bankruptcy has brought to light a plethora of accounting scandals, O’Leary suggested that the collapse of the exchange was sparked by Binance selling its 20% stake in the firm back to Sam Bankman-Fried in late 2021.
That blew a significant hole in FTX’s balance sheet and was the starting force that caused the troubled crypto exchange to go under, O’Leary alleged.
Binance’s CZ disputed those claims in an interview with CNBC on Thursday, adding that O’Leary’s claims “don’t make sense.” He also noted that O’Leary and Sam Bankman-Fried had a “special relationship,” CZ said.
“Yesterday on the air, CZ called me a liar. That suggests I perjured myself in front of the US Senate for two hours this week. I can assure you that’s not the case,” O’Leary said to CNBC on Friday.
