O’Leary Ventures chief and “Shark Tank’s” “Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary is blasting the recent decision in Donald Trump’s civil fraud case that said he must pay $355 million dollars in punitive damages.
O’Leary spoke with Fox & Friends Weekend about the dangerous precedent the ruling sets and how it may negatively impact business in the Big Apple.
“Forget about the Trump factor,” he said. “It’s not about that. What does this say to everybody that wants to do work in New York and wants to risk capital? … this judge arbitrarily decide[d] that this is the right amount. I don’t understand it. No developer does.”
He added, “It’s an atrocity. It’s an embarrassment, but it’s an assault on real estate.”
O’Leary echoed his comments Monday on “Cavuto: Coast to Coast” on FOX Business.
“New York was already a loser state, like California is a loser state. There are many loser states because of policy, high taxes on competitive regulation,” he said. “I would never invest in New York now. And I’m not the only person saying that.”
From Fox News:
O’Leary said very few business sectors create the amount of cash flow that real estate does. What Trump was found liable for doing, he argued, is not too different from the typical “haggling” that goes on between a prospective debtor and a bank.
“You go to a bank and you say, ‘Look, I want to borrow $200 million to build a building’. And they say, ‘What assets do you have that we can secure this loan against?’ And you point to a building you built before, and you haggle, and you argue about the value of that building.”
With New York appearing to categorize some instances of that process as potentially fraudulent, O’Leary said New York has supplanted California as the top name on his list of “loser states” for business.
Watch the clip above.
Trump fraud ruling reveals New York's 'assault' on real estate, 'Mr Wonderful' says: Move your business out https://t.co/2Ns8NgGSQx
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 20, 2024
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