{"id":6666,"date":"2026-02-16T06:10:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=6666"},"modified":"2026-02-16T06:10:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:10:37","slug":"judge-orders-bitboy-to-pay-us2-8m-in-defamation-case-brought-by-kevin-oleary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=6666","title":{"rendered":"Judge Orders \u2018BitBoy\u2019 to Pay US$2.8M in Defamation Case Brought by Kevin O\u2019Leary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div id=\"blockquote-block_f9a37c4820fc8346f2c48cf8b9ada597\" class=\"blockquote-container\" style=\"border-color: #5100fc\">\n<div class=\"blockquote-text\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Miami federal court entered a multimillion-dollar default judgment after the defendant failed to participate in proceedings.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court allocated damages across emotional harm, reputational impact and punitive findings tied to online statements.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Attempts to overturn the ruling were denied despite claims of incarceration and mental health challenges.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Kevin O\u2019Leary has secured a US$2.8 million (AU$3.95 million) default judgment against crypto content creator Ben Armstrong in a defamation action heard in federal court in Miami. The ruling was issued by the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida and followed Armstrong\u2019s failure to appear or file a defence.<\/p>\n<p>The award comprises US$750,000 (AU$1.06 million) for emotional distress, US$78,000 (AU$109,980) for reputational harm and US$2 million (AU$2.82 million) in punitive damages. The court found that Armstrong\u2019s conduct justified punitive damages and determined the posts were made with actual malice.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: Australia\u2019s SMSFs Embrace Crypto as Regulation and ETFs Fuel New Wave of Adoption<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-online-accusations-spark-legal-fallout\">Online Accusations Spark Legal Fallout<\/h2>\n<p>The dispute arose from a series of posts published in March 2025 in which Armstrong accused O\u2019Leary and his wife of involvement in a fatal 2019 boating accident in Ontario. O\u2019Leary was a passenger and was not charged, while his wife was later exonerated following trial proceedings. One post urged followers to \u201ccall a real life murderer\u201d and included O\u2019Leary\u2019s private phone number, resulting in a brief suspension on the platform.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Leary testified that his phone received hundreds of calls after the number was shared and that he increased security spending by about US$200,000 (AU$282,000) per year. Armstrong later sought to set aside the default judgment, citing incarceration and bipolar disorder, but the court rejected the request, noting he had notice of the case and delayed nearly a year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: Coinbase Swings to $667M Loss as Crypto Slump Crushes Trading Volumes<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>BitBoy,Law#Judge #Orders #BitBoy #Pay #US2.8M #Defamation #Case #Brought #Kevin #OLeary1771222237<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Miami federal court entered a multimillion-dollar default judgment after the defendant failed to participate in proceedings. The court allocated damages across emotional harm, reputational impact and punitive findings tied to online statements. Attempts to overturn the ruling were denied despite claims of incarceration and mental health challenges. Kevin O\u2019Leary has secured a US$2.8 million<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2523,2526,1224,2525,645,2032,2527,2522,1097,2524],"class_list":["post-6666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bitcoin","tag-bitboy","tag-brought","tag-case","tag-defamation","tag-judge","tag-kevin","tag-oleary","tag-orders","tag-pay","tag-us2-8m"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Judge Orders \u2018BitBoy\u2019 to Pay US$2.8M in Defamation Case Brought by Kevin O\u2019Leary - Crypto News: Latest Cryptocurrency News and Analysis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.uk.com\/?p=6666\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge Orders \u2018BitBoy\u2019 to Pay US$2.8M in Defamation Case Brought by Kevin O\u2019Leary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Miami federal court entered a multimillion-dollar default judgment after the defendant failed to participate in proceedings. The court allocated damages across emotional harm, reputational impact and punitive findings tied to online statements. Attempts to overturn the ruling were denied despite claims of incarceration and mental health challenges. 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