Salt Lake City, Utah — Two Utah residents sued celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary and Fox News, alleging they were falsely smeared as Chinese agents while opposing a massive data center project in Box Elder County.
Joshua Kanter, founder of Alliance for a Better Utah, and Gabrielle Finlayson of Elevate Strategies filed the federal defamation lawsuit Wednesday. The complaint says O’Leary and Fox News led a “weekslong smear campaign” after O’Leary claimed opponents of the Stratos data center were working on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.
Business Insider reported that the lawsuit alleges O’Leary made similar accusations during multiple media appearances between May and June. O’Leary later posted that he had “no evidence” Kanter, Finlayson, or their organizations were funded by China. Fox News said it corrected the record on every program where the comments aired and will “vigorously defend” itself.
The dispute is tied to Stratos, a proposed 40,000-acre data center campus that has drawn local opposition over environmental, water, energy, and land-use concerns. O’Leary has promoted the project as important to U.S. artificial intelligence development.
The plaintiffs are seeking damages to be determined at trial.
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