Millionaire Canadian businessman and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary has told the US Senate Banking Committee, which is investigating the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange, that rival platform Binance “intentionally” put the company out of business.
This is despite FTX’s new chief executive John Ray telling the committee on Tuesday that Binance had nothing to do with exchange’s collapse.
“In my view, these two behemoths that own the unregulated market together and grow these incredible businesses in terms of growth were at war with each other and one put the other out of business intentionally,” Mr O’Leary, who was paid about $15 million to be an ambassador and spokesman for FTX, said as he gave evidence before the congressional hearing on Wednesday.
“Maybe there is nothing wrong with love and war, but Binance is a massive unregulated global monopoly now; they put FTX out of business.”
However, Mr Ray, a lawyer and insolvency specialist who oversaw Enron’s bankruptcy, said that FTX was not solvent and Binance did not cause its collapse.
“[Mr Bankman-Fried] spends a considerable amount of time talking about Binance and how Binance effectively created a run on the bank, suggesting that had that not occurred, FTX was solvent and would have been just fine. Prior to that episode, is your belief that FTX was solvent?", Congressman Anthony Gonzalez asked Mr Ray.
“No,” Mr Ray replied.
“I thought so,” Mr Gonzalez said.
When contacted for comment on Thursday, Binance said: “As per the SEC complaint, especially sections 76 & 77, and John Ray's testimony, Kevin O'Leary's statement is categorically false.”
Mr Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday after federal prosecutors in the US charged him with eight criminal counts, including conspiracy and wire fraud, for allegedly misusing billions of dollars in customers’ funds before the $9 billion collapse of FTX and Alameda Research, his cryptocurrency trading company.
Appearing in court in Nassau on Tuesday, Mr Bankman-Fried was denied bail and remanded in custody as the judge said he was too big of a flight risk to be released.
“I am not satisfied that there is any condition that I could place in Samuel Bankman-Fried to sufficiently satisfy, because of his access to substantial finances, that he would not and could not abscond,” said Judge Joyce Ferguson-Pratt.
Mr Bankman-Fried is being held in the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services prison until his extradition hearing on February 8.
FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in the US on November 11 in the highest-profile cryptocurrency exchange failure to date, after traders pulled $6 billion from the platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal, Reuters reported.
In response to the collapse of FTX, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum plummeted but have since pared back most of their losses.
Watch: What is Bitcoin and how did it start?
Mr Bankman-Fried, who cofounded FTX with Gary Wang and Nishad Singh in 2019, and Alameda Research in 2017, resigned as chief executive of FTX on the same day as the bankruptcy filing.
On November 6, billionaire rival Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, chief executive of Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, fuelled speculation about the financial health of the company in a tweet that snowballed into $6 billion of withdrawals from the exchange, Reuters reported at the time.
A month later, on December 9, Mr Zhao posted a series of 11 tweets in response to similar claims Mr O’Leary made about Binance during an interview with US business news channel CNBC.
“It seems $15m not only changed @kevinolearytv’s mind about crypto, it also made him align with a fraudster. Is he seriously defending SBF?” Mr Zhao said in the tweet.
The tweet included a link to the interview and the comment: “Baseless attacks start around 4:20.”
Mr O’Leary told the hearing that he contacted Mr Bankman-Fried after his accounts were stripped of their assets to ask him where the money had gone.
“I said, ‘Sam, walk me back 24 months [and] tell me the use of proceeds, the assets of your company — where did you spend it?’” Mr O’Leary, who estimates he lost $9.1 million when FTX collapsed, said.
“And then he told me about a transaction that occurred over the last 24 months, the repurchase of his shares from Binance, his competitor,” he said.
“I didn’t know this at the time but at some point, CZ or Binance … purchased 20 per cent ownership in Sam Bankman-Fried’s firm for seed stock.”
Mr O’Leary testified that Mr Bankman-Fried told him he paid $2 billion for the share buyback from Binance.
But 24 hours later, during another conversation between the two, he was told that it “could have been as much as $3 billion to buy back the shares from CZ”.
“I asked him, ‘What would compel you to do that? Why wouldn’t you keep your assets on your balance sheet, why would you offer this to just one shareholder?’” Mr O’Leary said.
“He said, ‘Because every time we went to get licensing in different jurisdictions … CZ would not comply with the regulators to question these different geographies, these different jurisdictions to provide the data that would clear them for a licence. He withheld it, according to Sam Bankman-Fried’.”
“The only option management and Sam Bankman-Fried had was to buy him out at an extraordinary valuation of close to $32 billion with apparently a 15 per cent discount,” he said.
However, Mr Ray told the committee hearing that he had never seen “such an utter failure of corporate controls at every level of an organisation, from the lack of financial statements to a complete failure of any internal controls or governance whatsoever”.
Mr Ray also sought to assure regulators in the US and other jurisdictions as his team worked to repair relationships with them.
“I completely understand the depth of outrage and frustration with what happened,” Mr Ray said.
“I have instructed my team to co-operate as comprehensively and completely as possible, and much of our time so far has been spent on the truly Herculean task of gathering and organising information responsive to the many requests we have received.”
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Angela Bassett, Tina Fey
Directed by: Pete Doctor
Rating: 4 stars
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Astra%20Tech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMarch%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAbdallah%20Abu%20Sheikh%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20technology%20investment%20and%20development%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20size%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24500m%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
Hydrogen: Market potential
Hydrogen has an estimated $11 trillion market potential, according to Bank of America Securities and is expected to generate $2.5tn in direct revenues and $11tn of indirect infrastructure by 2050 as its production increases six-fold.
"We believe we are reaching the point of harnessing the element that comprises 90 per cent of the universe, effectively and economically,” the bank said in a recent report.
Falling costs of renewable energy and electrolysers used in green hydrogen production is one of the main catalysts for the increasingly bullish sentiment over the element.
The cost of electrolysers used in green hydrogen production has halved over the last five years and will fall to 60 to 90 per cent by the end of the decade, acceding to Haim Israel, equity strategist at Merrill Lynch. A global focus on decarbonisation and sustainability is also a big driver in its development.
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
T20 World Cup Qualifier
October 18 – November 2
Opening fixtures
Friday, October 18
ICC Academy: 10am, Scotland v Singapore, 2.10pm, Netherlands v Kenya
Zayed Cricket Stadium: 2.10pm, Hong Kong v Ireland, 7.30pm, Oman v UAE
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Rameez Shahzad, Darius D’Silva, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zawar Farid, Ghulam Shabber, Junaid Siddique, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Waheed Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Zahoor Khan
Players out: Mohammed Naveed, Shaiman Anwar, Qadeer Ahmed
Players in: Junaid Siddique, Darius D’Silva, Waheed Ahmed
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Fifa Club World Cup:
When: December 6-16
Where: Games to take place at Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi and Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain
Defending champions: Real Madrid
10 tips for entry-level job seekers
- Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
- Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
- Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
- For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
- Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
- Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
- Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
- Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
- Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
- Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
LOS ANGELES GALAXY 2 MANCHESTER UNITED 5
Galaxy: Dos Santos (79', 88')
United: Rashford (2', 20'), Fellaini (26'), Mkhitaryan (67'), Martial (72')
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
Results
Stage three:
1. Stefan Bissegger (SUI) EF Education-EasyPost, in 9-43
2. Filippo Ganna (ITA) Ineos Grenadiers, at 7s
3. Tom Dumoulin (NED) Jumbo-Visma, at 14s
4. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE-Team Emirates, at 18s
5. Joao Almeida (POR) UAE-Team Emirates, at 22s
6. Mikkel Bjerg (DEN) UAE-Team Emirates, at 24s
General Classification:
1. Stefan Bissegger (SUI) EF Education-EasyPost, in 9-13-02
2. Filippo Ganna (ITA) Ineos Grenadiers, at 7s
3. Jasper Philipsen (BEL) Alpecin Fenix, at 12s
4. Tom Dumoulin (NED) Jumbo-Visma, at 14s
5. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE-Team Emirates, at 18s
6. Joao Almeida (POR) UAE-Team Emirates, at 22s
Cherry
Directed by: Joe and Anthony Russo
Starring: Tom Holland, Ciara Bravo
1/5
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
