NewsMV
Kevin O'Leary and Fox News Media face a defamation lawsuit from local Utah residents and advocacy groups following O'Leary's on-air allegations that they were funded by China.
The legal action, filed less than three weeks after O'Leary's public statements, marks a sharp turn for the celebrity investor, who had previously described his 40,000-acre Wonder Valley data center project in Box Elder County as an inevitability backed by state leadership.
The suit names Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, and Joshua Kanter as plaintiffs. O'Leary and Fox have moved to dismiss the case, which was filed in late September.
On Fox Business, O'Leary had claimed that a sudden increase in online criticism of the project indicated Chinese interference, reading names of critics he believed were connected to the Chinese Communist Party.
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