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John Reed Stark. Re:Kevin Leary - 3 days ago
President, John Reed Stark Consulting | Former Chief, SEC Office of Internet Enforcement | First in Incident Response
3d Edited

Famed Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary, who has suffered FTX-related losses, blames the SEC for the FTX debacle and vowed to “fly to Washington DC” to lambaste the SEC for its negligence. Instead of a plane ticket, O'Leary should buy a mirror and take a good hard look at it.

Just last month, O’Leary brazenly shilled FTX, proudly declaring, "If there's ever a place I could be that I'm not gonna get in trouble, it's gonna be at FTX." https://lnkd.in/gf7SX8KG

Talk about Alice in Wonderland.

O'Leary's pivot to the tired and toothless refrain of berating the SEC after a dumpster fire like the FTX grift is not just a dubious deflection, it's farcical and a flat-out ruse.

It's like Holmes or Balwani blaming the FDA for bogus blood test results from Theranos' counterfeit blood test machines; like Hannibal Lecter blaming the FBI for his killing spree; or like Oswald blaming the US Secret Service for JFK's assassination.

The SEC has been the sole US regulator to battle Big Crypto and lean-in. The SEC, who I often criticize (see https://lnkd.in/e-95SHTF) saved millions, perhaps even billions, in investor crypto-losses. Despite mammoth political opposition and rogue defendants with infinite financial resources, the SEC:

-Stopped Telegram from defrauding investors with an emergency enforcement action. https://lnkd.in/gJDuRek;

-Stopped BlockFi from doing to its investors what Celsius did to theirs (and fined them $100M). https://lnkd.in/d-Xy45ec;

-Stopped Coinbase from selling a crypto-lending product. https://lnkd.in/gmFsAbKV

-Refused to allow US financial marketplaces to peddle bitcoin ETF's to investors; https://lnkd.in/esWvv6nP

-Brought 100+ crypto-cases and won all of them. https://lnkd.in/e37pRApS and https://lnkd.in/ecUqF3FP.

With respect to digital assets, never in its history has the SEC so aggressively shared their views through speeches/Investor Alerts/a rare Section 21(a) Report of Investigation/Congressional testimony/and many SEC statements/proclamations.

Former SEC Chair Jay Clayton engaged in an unprecedented multi-year crypto-tour, always speaking bluntly/thoughtfully about the dangers in the digital asset marketplace. SEC Chair Gensler has been even more active regarding the perils of crypto, even warning crypto-exchanges that they were squarely within his sights. https://lnkd.in/gJJKmRmy

Yes, the SEC must do more and has redoubled its efforts, even creating a specialized crypto unit. https://lnkd.in/g-Bn7gda.

But O’Leary knew all too well that he was trusting an anarchical industry with no insurance/regulatory oversight/consumer protections/examinations/licensure/cybersecurity standards/fiduciaries/segregation of customer assets/ insider trading or market manipulation prohibitions/etc. Yet, he still touted FTX like it was magical financial elixir.

Leave the spin and PR in the Shark Tank studio Kevin, no one’s buying into it — especially those who got duped because they trusted your judgment.

https://lnkd.in/gwbsmBum
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