“Shark Tank” host and investor Kevin O’Leary blasted New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday over her office possibly seizing former President Donald Trump’s assets in his civil fraud case.
Chief among O’Leary’s concerns is that the move would undermine investors’ trust in the US economy, he told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle.”
That trust is “the essence of what makes the American brand the No. 1 economy on Earth,” O’Leary said.
Trump was found liable in February by Judge Arthur Engoron for a $454 million fine, including interest, for conspiring to inflate the value of his assets in New York. He has to start paying that bond by Monday, and James has said before that she may move to seize Trump’s assets if he fails to fork up the cash.
“The collateral damage to the American brand is horrific,” O’Leary told Ingraham.
According to him, the threat of Trump losing his New York properties will pose troubles for O’Leary as he travels the globe next week to raise money for a $3 billion data center.
“The No. 1 question I have when I go to these countries to try and raise this capital is: ‘What the hell is going on in New York’?'” O’Leary said. “And I tell them: ”It’s not America. It is just an anomaly. I swear to you, everybody, this is not America.'”
The investor took issue with the deadline given to Trump to post his bond, and described any following seizure of Trump’s assets as an attempt to “steal.”
“Property rights are mentioned 37 times in the Constitution. Due process, very important. Why steal someone’s assets in 27 days?” O’Leary said. “Why not give them more time to come up with the cash? Forget about Donald Trump. Who would want this to happen to them?”
The businessman, who calls himself “Mr Wonderful,” added that he’s now spooked from investing further in the state of New York.
O’Leary is a Canadian citizen, and typically aligns in public with right-wing political views, running to lead the Conservative Party in Canada in 2017 against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. O’Leary has said he also holds citizenship in Ireland and the United Arab Emirates.
But the investor said on Friday that his criticism of James’ move had “nothing to do with Donald Trump.” When Ingraham accused James multiple times of specifically targeting Trump with a half-billion-dollar bond, O’Leary did not directly agree or disagree with her statements.
“I don’t know who she is,” O’Leary said of James. “But all I could say was, who’s next?”
Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, the businessman characterized James’ posture in pursuing Trump’s bond as an “assault on the #american brand!”
In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump claimed to have the money to pay the New York bond, though his lawyers previously said he couldn’t find that much cash in time.
“THROUGH HARD WORK, TALENT, AND LUCK, I CURRENTLY HAVE ALMOST FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS IN CASH, A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF WHICH I INTENDED TO USE IN MY CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT,” he wrote.
Earlier this month, the former president successfully paid a $92 million bond as part of E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him.
Meanwhile, James’ office has filed judgments in Westchester County, where Trump owns a golf course and private estate called Seven Springs — in a sign that it could be looking to seize the former president’s property.
Representatives for O’Leary, James’ office, and Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular hours by Business Insider.
