Breaking: Shark Tank Star Mr. Wonderful Goes Scorched Earth On Elizabeth Warren Over Intense Hearing – “That Is Not Complicated”

We all know Kevin O’Leary is a popular businessman, entrepreneur, and a television personality; he has invested in several businesses and is a star of the famous entrepreneur show “Shark Tank”. What many don’t know is that O’Leary is also a spokesperson for FTX. 

As the cryptocurrency market is going through a severe downfall, the well-known Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised some serious questions against the cryptocurrency exchange.

Both personalities got into a heated debate when Warren tried to connect cryptocurrency with money laundering.

O’Leary’s argued in favor of  cryptocurrency and stated that it should be kept in the cycle. He also claimed that cryptocurrency does have its flaws but it involves far less money laundering as compared to the money laundering using traditional currency. 

Warren stated, “Mr. O’Leary, I know that you are a big supporter of crypto even after you lost $10 million in FTX’s collapse. But you are an experienced investor,”. 

She also added, “So, let me ask you, do you believe that the potential benefits of crypto are so promising that we should accept weaker anti-money laundering rules and weaker compliance from crypto firms than we require from banks, from brokers, and from Western Union?”

O’Leary disagreed as he replied, “No, I think we should apply the same regulatory structure that we apply to existing trading of stocks and bonds on exchanges tied to broker-dealers. That is not complicated. It’s already been implemented in other countries,”

The Senator remarked, “I appreciate your point that everyone tries to engage in money laundering, That’s what terrorists do. That’s what drug companies, uh, drug dealers do. And that’s what states like Iran and North Korea have done.”

Warren continued, “the only point I’m trying to make is, should the same rules against money laundering apply to crypto in the way that they apply to banks, to stockbrokers, to credit card companies, to Western Union? And, I think your answer to that is yes, right?” 

O’Leary responded with an angry “NO” to Warren’s question, and exclaimed that “It’s not yes. I’m just saying if you know your client rules on both sides of the transaction and use crypto, such as USDC, that is regulated, you solve this problem, Senator, overnight.”

Warren and Republican Sen. Roger Marshall (KS)  have put forward bipartisan legislation that would allow the Bank Secrecy Act to include crypto assets and implement the act on all parties including exchanges, providers, validators and miners. Warren and O’Leary, both agree on the regulation of crypto, but disagree on how those regulations apply.

The bill mentioned would ban any transaction by financial institutions that would conceal the origin of the funds. Moreover, it would allow FinCEN to implement their proposed ruling that requires crypto transactions originating from anonymous wallets to be reported.

Cryptocurrency has quickly taken over as a popular medium of exchange and it’s here to stay. It allows users to get out of traditional financial markets which has its own pros and cons. It is somewhat important to regulate crypto and both mainstream parties disagree on how those regulations should look like.