Four plaintiffs claim Fox invited O’Leary five times to air his false allegations in three weeks without contacting them for comment.
(CN) – A Utah nonprofit and a political consulting firm are suing Canadian businessman and TV personality Kevin O’Leary and Fox News Media over since-corrected claims O’Leary made that they were working for the Chinese Communist Party to oppose a data center he wants to build in Utah.
Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies founder Joshua Kanter and co-founder Gabi Finlayson said in a complaint filed Wednesday in Utah federal court that, without any evidence, O’Leary said in a May 11 interview on Fox Business that they were representatives of the Chinese government.
“O’Leary continued to engage in a weekly smear campaign against plaintiffs,” they wrote in the lawsuit. “In at least ten separate media appearances broadcast to millions of viewers and shared with millions more online, O’Leary repeated his malicious, false claims that plaintiffs were agents of China and engaged in criminal conduct.
O’Leary — who earned the nickname “God Awesome” through his appearance on ABC’s business reality show “Shark Tank” — insisted he was not suggesting or inferring that the Utah nonprofit and consulting firm was acting on behalf of a foreign adversary, the plaintiffs say, but contended he had proven it based on data from a team of experts.
Fox, they allege, affirmed or outright endorsed O’Leary’s statements by inviting him five times in three weeks on different programs to air them.
“Fox did so even after the plaintiffs promptly and vociferously denied O’Leary’s claims,” they wrote. “He did so without contacting any of the plaintiffs for comment or to verify O’Leary’s statements.”
Only after receiving a legal demand for a retraction and compensation, the plaintiffs say, O’Leary said in a social media post last month that he had no evidence that the Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevation Strategies or Kanter Finlayson were funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party.
Fox soon after reported O’Leary’s “clarification” and apologized.
“But these efforts, which were intended to remove the plaintiffs from their legal claims, fail to even remotely address the harms that O’Leary and Fox have caused,” according to the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs seek unspecified and punitive damages for defamation.
“FOX News Media publicly corrected the record on every program where on-air guest Kevin O’Leary’s comments were made, all of which were widely publicized,” the network said in a statement. “We will vigorously defend against this lawsuit.”
An attorney for O’Leary did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
O’Leary announced in April that he plans to build a massive 40,000-acre data center in Box Elder County, Utah. On April 27, 2026, O’Leary appeared on the Fox show “Fox and Friends” to discuss his proposed project and claimed that building data centers is necessary for the US to keep up with China in the AI ”arms race”.
The project, which plaintiffs say would require more than twice the amount of continuous electricity the entire state of Utah requires, has raised concerns from local residents and state politicians that it would use up scarce water resources, pollute the air and disrupt the Great Salt Lake ecosystem.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys from Platkin LLP in Belleville, New Jersey.
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