Kevin O’Leary is being sued for defamation by a group fighting data center construction in Utah after the “Shark Tank” star went on Fox News and claimed some of the individuals involved with the opposition have ties to China, according to The Hill.
The suit, which was also against Fox News, was filed on Wednesday in Utah federal district court by Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson and Josh Kanter. It claimed that Kanter and Finlayson “suffered devastating reputational harm, significant economic losses, severe emotional distress, and ongoing threats to their physical safety” after O’Leary went “on the attack” during his Fox News appearance.
“Fox was instrumental in O’Leary’s defamatory smear campaign, putting him on air to attack Plaintiffs five times in three weeks,” the suit read. “Despite O’Leary’s inherently unreliable claims, and his clear lack of support for them, Fox repeatedly invited O’Leary onto its programs and allowed him to broadcast his false accusations to millions of viewers without any qualification.”
Fox News Media said in a statement regarding the lawsuit, “Fox News Media publicly corrected the record on every program where on-air guest Kevin O’Leary’s comments were made, all of which was extensively publicized. We will vigorously defend against this lawsuit.”
Reps for O’Leary did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In late June, Fox News issued a statement apologizing for O’Leary’s claims. The statement read, “Kevin O’Leary appeared as a guest on the show on May 24 and discussed the ongoing controversy surrounding his planned data center project in Utah. He made certain claims relating to the opponents of his project. Mr. O’Leary has now corrected the record and explained he has ‘no evidence’ that the Alliance for a Better Utah, Josh Kantor or Taylor Knuth are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party.”
O’Leary issued a statement of his own over social media, walking back the allegations. He wrote, “Recently I appeared on various news programs and would like to clarify that I have no evidence that Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, Taylor Knuth or Josh Kanter are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party.”