Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao have subpoenaed Kevin O’Leary to support their defense against a claim seeking at least $1.76 billion . The Binance–FTX lawsuit, filed on November 10, 2024, centers on a share buyback that the FTX estate alleges involved an improper transfer of funds.
Key takeaways
Binance and Zhao are seeking evidence from Kevin O’Leary for their defense.
The FTX estate challenges a July 2021 payment for Binance’s stake.
A July 27, 2026 ruling allowed the core claims to proceed.
A successful clawback would increase funds available for FTX creditors.
Kevin O’Leary’s role in the Binance–FTX lawsuit
The subpoena brings in a witness who previously accused Binance of deliberately undermining FTX. On December 14, 2022 , O’Leary testified to that effect during a hearing.
Binance and Zhao are seeking information from O’Leary as part of their defense. His earlier testimony places his account of the exchanges’ relationship within the evidence-gathering process surrounding FTX’s collapse.
The case is in discovery , the stage at which both sides can request documents and testimony from the parties involved and from outside witnesses such as O’Leary.
The disputed July 2021 payment
The FTX estate alleges that the exchange was already insolvent when it paid Binance $1.76 billion in July 2021. That claim underpins its effort to recover the payment as a fraudulent transfer .
FTX Recovery Trust and FTX Digital Markets Ltd brought the case against Binance Holdings Limited and Zhao. The transaction at issue was FTX’s repurchase of Binance’s ownership stake: Binance sold its shares back to FTX.
The estate also alleges that the payment included funds misappropriated from customer assets. These are allegations supporting the recovery claim, not findings that the payment was improper.
The legal mechanism is a clawback . Under bankruptcy law, a court finding that a payment was improper can allow the money to be recovered and redistributed to creditors.
Judge Owens’ ruling opened the evidence-gathering stage
On July 27, 2026, US Bankruptcy Judge Karen B. Owens rejected attempts to have the central fraudulent-transfer allegations against Binance and Zhao thrown out. The ruling allowed those claims to move into discovery and toward an eventual trial.
Before that decision, Binance had challenged the court’s jurisdiction in early 2025, and the dismissal motions had been partly litigated. The proceedings have since moved beyond those threshold disputes to examining the underlying transaction and events.
The subpoena is part of that substantive investigation.
The recovery stakes for FTX creditors
A successful clawback would add substantially to the money available for distribution to FTX creditors. The Binance– FTX lawsuit seeks at least $1.76 billion, tying the disputed share transaction directly to the estate’s recovery effort.
For Binance and Zhao, the defense includes seeking evidence from a witness whose previous testimony accused Binance of undermining FTX. The estate’s central legal argument concerns FTX’s financial condition when it made the July 2021 payment.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.
