FARGO — When "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary was tapped as the director of North Dakota's Wonder Fund, a $45 million program used to invest in early stage businesses, state officials said it would raise the profile of that program and the state as a destination for investment dollars .
O'Leary, a regular on cable news in recent weeks, appears to be holding up his end of the bargain, praising investor-friendly states like North Dakota and Florida and lambasting states like New York and Massachusetts that have higher taxes and "punitive" regulatory climates.
"I don't put companies here in New York anymore," O'Leary told CNN on March 3, "or in Massachusetts or New Jersey or in California."
"Those states are uninvestable. The policy (in New York) is insane, the taxes are too high."
Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary claims New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and California are "uninvestable" https://t.co/HyuU3AgJLM pic.twitter.com/XkhqTmqvnw
— CNN (@CNN) March 3, 2023
"We put (companies) in Fargo, North Dakota," O'Leary said, "because 40% of the people work elsewhere, including Boston."
ADVERTISEMENT
In a March 17 interview on Fox Business, O'Leary contrasted North Dakota's Bank of North Dakota with a regional banking system that puts responsibility for failing regional banks in the hands of every taxpayer.
"The model that works, that says this is a good idea, is in North Dakota. They incorporated their own sovereign bank in 1919," O'Leary said.
"It has the fourth-fastest growing GDP per capita, so you know their economy's working," he said.
The Wonder Fund recently announced it chose tech start-up LandTrust for its first investment .
The Trust Project
