Kevin O’Leary and his wife, Linda, were in a boating collision on Lake Joseph in 2019 that resulted in two deaths when their boat struck another.
The couple was returning from dinner near their Lake Joseph cottage on August 24, 2019 at approximately 11:30 p.m.
According to court submissions, on that dark night in August, the speedboat the O’Learys were in, driven by his wife Linda O’Leary, and in which Kevin O’Leary and a family friend were passengers, collided with an allegedly unlit pontoon boat. The collision resulted in the deaths of two people, Suzanne Brito and Gary Poltash. Following a 2021 trial, Linda O’Leary was found not guilty of careless operation of a vessel, as the court could not determine if her speed was excessive.
In March 2025, Ben Armstrong, also known as Bitboy Crypto, took to X and, during multiple posts, allegedly accused O’Leary of murder and claimed that O’Leary had paid millions to cover up the boating incident.
Kevin O’Leary launched a defamation lawsuit.
Then, on Friday, February 13, 2026, according to Bloomberg Law, Judge Beth Bloom of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami entered a default judgment against Armstrong, who she said failed to substantively respond to allegations that he falsely accused O’Leary of murder.
O’Leary won approximately $2.83M.
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