Jul 17, 2026
Kevin O’Leary — Shark Tank alum and self-professed “Mr. Wonderful” — earned another, unfortunate moniker this week: defendant.
That title comes via two Utah residents — Gabi Finlayson and Josh Kanter — who sued the entrepreneur and investor over allegations he’s made about them on Fox News in recent months, claiming that they served as “proxies for the Chinese government” and that “[t]his is the [CCP] at work here. There’s no question about it.”
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The allegations were made within the context of O’Leary taking aim at critics of his proposed 40,000 acre Utah AI data center facility.
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The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday against both O’Leary and the Fox News Network, alleges that Finlayson, founder and senior partner of Utah-based political consulting firm Elevate Strategies, and Kanter, attorney and founder of the progressive non-profit Alliance for a Better Utah, “suffered devastating reputational harm, significant economic losses, severe emotional distress, and ongoing threats to their physical safety” as a result of the attacks.
It also alleges that “Fox was instrumental in O’Leary’s defamatory smear campaign, putting him on air to attack [the] plaintiffs five times in three weeks.”
“I spent years building my reputation, my business, and the trust of my community. In just
weeks, Kevin O’Leary tore it all down with lies,” Gabrielle Finlayson said in a statement provided to Moneywise. “When someone with that reach weaponizes a massive public platform in an attempt to silence you, there must be accountability.”
Retractions haven’t stopped the fight from heading to court
Kanter, also in a statement provided to Moneywise, added that “We were forced into the surreal position of having to publicly deny that we were agents of a foreign government” — accusations that “turned our lives upside down” He added that “No one, no matter how wealthy or influential, should be able to inflict that kind of harm without being held accountable.”
While Moneywise was unable to reach O’Leary for comment, he took to social media in June to announce that “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.”
And one of his attorneys told Business Insider that O’Leary would fight the lawsuit.
As for O’Leary’s co-defendant, the network told Moneywise that “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.”
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The suit, meanwhile, notes that damages, “including for reputational harm, emotional distress, and such special damages as lost business, lost income, lost profits, and lost employment and other economic opportunities,” will be in an amount to be determined at trial.
In 2023 Fox News settled both a $787.5 million lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over Fox 2020 election claims that the court deemed false, as well as a $12 million suit brought by a former producer who alleged workplace abuse.
O’Leary’s plans for a sprawling Utah data center complex, meanwhile, have encountered massive backlash from locals worried about threats to natural resources — even costing the state’s longtime senate president a recent re-election bid for backing it.
Ironically, the lawsuit notes that Finlayson and Kanter were confused by O’Leary’s attacks because “they played virtually no role in any organized opposition to the project.”
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Mike Crisolago is a Sr. Staff Reporter at Moneywise with nearly 20 years of experience working as a journalist, editor, content strategist and podcast host. He specializes in personal finance writing related to the 50-plus demographic and retirement, as well as politics and lifestyle content.
