Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTMike CrisolagoFri, July 17, 2026 at 9:00 PM GMT+2 4 min readAlex Wong/Getty ImagesKevin 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 (1)."Must ReadThe allegations were made within the context of O'Leary taking aim at critics of his proposed 40,000 acre Utah AI data center facility.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 justweeks, 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 courtKanter, 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 (2)."Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info