Kevin O'Leary wins defamation case; crypto influencer Ben Armstrong to pay $2.8 million in damages

PANews February 16 News, according to The Block, a federal judge in Florida ruled in favor of Kevin O’Leary in a defamation case against former crypto influencer Ben Armstrong (known as “BitBoy”) and ordered Ben Armstrong to pay $2.8 million in damages.
Ben Armstrong posted a series of messages on the X platform in late March 2025. In these posts, Ben Armstrong accused O’Leary, who is called “Mr. Wonderful” on the show Shark Tank, and his wife of being murderers, claiming they paid millions of dollars to cover up a boat accident in 2019. In that incident, O’Leary’s boat collided with another vessel on a lake in Ontario, resulting in two deaths. O’Leary was a passenger and was never charged. His wife was accused of negligent operation of the boat but was acquitted after a 13-day trial.
Ben Armstrong’s posts included publicly sharing O’Leary’s private phone number and calling on fans to “call the real-life murderer.” The post led to Ben Armstrong’s account being suspended for 12 hours by the platform.