‘Excuse Me, What Fraud?’ Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Gets In Heated Exchange With CNN’s Laura Coates Over Trump’s Business Practices

After former President Donald Trump was ordered by a judge to pay $355 million in damages and banned from running his company for three years after being found liable of several charges including fraud, some in the business community are asking “Where’s the crime?” One of those is Kevin O’Leary, one of the hosts of ABC’s Shark Tank, who appeared on CNN’s Laura Coates Live on Monday to try to make his case.

O’Leary has been making the media rounds since the judgement came down, claiming that it was going to be bad for business owners who, apparently, commit fraud all the time without it being prosecuted. That was one point O’Leary made during his testy conversation with CNN anchor Laura Coates:

Coates: I hear about the so-called victimless crimes, but the laws on the books — falsification of business records in the second degree, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud, conspiracy, and all these different aspects of it — those are actual crimes. I take as your point is that these should not have been prosecuted?

O’Leary: No, my point is, there’s never been a case like this in 75 years. Everything you just listed off is done by every real estate developer, everywhere on Earth, in every city. This has never, ever been prosecuted.

O’Leary continued, but Coates latched on to that first point:

Coates: I do wonder how many people take issue with the idea that every investor is engaged in falsifying business records. Every investor is engaged in what has been accused of Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, because there’s probably a lot who are saying themselves, “I’ve never falsified my business records. I know what a square foot looks like. I know what where I can ask for and what I have the money to support.” So I wonder to what extent that really is true.

But on the second point, wouldn’t there be many companies who would not want to do business or loan money to people like yourself or investors if they know that they can get away with fraud and there’s no recourse to protect them?

O’Leary: Excuse me. What fraud? This is not about Trump anymore. When you get a developer that builds a building and he says it’s worth $400 million, and he wants to borrow 200 million from a bank, which happens every day everywhere on Earth, including every American city, every developer is an entrepreneur. They shine the light on their building and they say it’s worth 400. The bank does its own due diligence, as was done in this case, because they’re very good at it, the banks are very good, and they say, no, it’s worth 300. We’re only going to loan you 150 million. That haggling has gone on for decades. That’s how it works.

Then it got spicy:

O’Leary: You really think people want to invest money in New York after this? How about we go somewhere else?

Coates: Well, I think there are people who would. I don’t want to cut you off, but I want to converse with you —

O’Leary: Well, you just did.

Coates: It’s only because I want to have a conversation —

O’Leary: You know what? I respect you–

Coates: — Kevin? As opposed to just having you tell me.

O’Leary: I respect you because you’re a lawyer. You’re a lawyer. You understand exactly what I’m talking about.

Coates: I got to tell you, I’m respectable for a number of reasons, Kevin O’Leary. But being a lawyer is one of those issues.

Later, O’Leary took a moment to introduce a little drama, holding his hand up and saying, “I want to put up my hand and ask, [New York Governor Kathy Hochul], who’s next? Who are you going after next?” To which Coates responded:

You put your hand up for that, Kevin? Put your hand down if that’s the question! What do you mean?

Despite the heat that fueled their conversation, the segment ended cordially when Coates asked O’Leary: “Do you currently own or will you be buying one of these gold sneakers?”

O’Leary laughed hard and responded: “Thank you, no. That’s very expensive. But you have to hand it to the branding.”

Watch the video above via CNN.