“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary said he won’t be pouring any money into “loser” New York after a Manhattan judge ordered former President Donald Trump to pay $355 million as part of a civil lawsuit alleging fraudulent business practices.
O’Leary issued his warning to real estate investors following Friday’s decision by Judge Arthur Engoron that Trump and his two eldest sons lied about his wealth and inflated the value of his assets.
“This award, I mean, just leaving the whole Trump thing out of it and seeing what occurred here … And I’m no different than any other investor, I’m shocked at this,” O’Leary told Fox Business Network on Monday.
O’Leary, a judge on the hit reality show known as “Mr. Wonderful,” said he “can’t even understand or fathom the decision at all.”
“There’s no rationale for it.”
O’Leary said that he has heard from peers in the business world who have pledged to shun New York, which “was already on the top of the list of being a loser state.”
“I would never invest in New York now,” O’Leary said, adding: “And I’m not the only person saying that.”
Engoron, a Democrat, concluded that Trump and his company were “likely to continue their fraudulent ways” without the penalties and controls he imposed.
Engoron concluded that Trump and his co-defendants “failed to accept responsibility” and that experts who testified on his behalf “simply denied reality.”
“This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin,” Engoron wrote in a searing 92-page opinion.
“They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.”
O’Leary said that his protest “has nothing to do with Trump.”
“This is not a Trump situation, this is a New York problem,” he said, accusing the state’s Democratic leaders of lowering “the legal bar.”
“Aren’t they going to question this judge? What is this?” he said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul insisted on Sunday that the massive judgment against Trump shouldn’t scare away other business owners.
“This is really an extraordinarily unusual circumstance that the law-abiding, rule-following New Yorkers who are businesspeople have nothing to worry about because they’re very different from Donald Trump and his behavior,” Hochul said on the “Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 radio.
But O’Leary wasn’t impressed by Hochul’s attempt to calm nervous investors. He said “Her words fall on deaf ears to everybody” and that private enterprise will leave the Empire State in favor of low-tax areas such as Texas and Florida.
He said “Every investor is worried because where is the victim? Who lost the money?”
“This is some arbitrary decision a judge made,” O’Leary said.
Trump praised O’Leary, writing on his Truth Social account: “Kevin O’Leary is so great, and tells it like it is.”
“Businesses will flee NYC & State after the Corrupt Judge’s ruling!” Trump wrote.
A spokesperson for the governor referred The Post to comments made by the governor earlier on Tuesday.
Hochul acknowledged that “the circumstances surrounding the case” involving Trump “are rather unique” and that the former president was punished for “his misrepresentation of assets and what he did to garner support from banks.”
“To the law-abiding business people in our state, we want to continue to welcome you,” Hochul said, adding that “we welcome all honest businesses.”
The Post has sought comment from Engoron.
With Post Wires
This story originally appeared on NYPost
