Kevin O’Leary said a major online disinformation campaign targeting his projects emerged after his team detected a sudden surge of direct messages across social media platforms, leading to a data investigation that he said uncovered links to political organizations, foreign actors and entities under federal scrutiny.

O’Leary said the issue began the evening of May 4, when his technology team noticed unusual activity across his online accounts.

“I have another mission that has emerged from this that I did not see coming, and maybe we want to segue into what happened the evening of may 4 at 830 because I have 12 million plus followers on various social media platforms,” O’Leary said.

He said one of his IT staffers alerted him to a massive increase in direct messages on X and Instagram.

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“I got a call from one of our IT guys, and he said there's something wrong here. There's a massive influx in DMs going on on two specific platforms, X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary said the increase was not minor and appeared too large to dismiss as normal engagement.

“Not a small increase, 10s of 1000s of percent increase,” O’Leary said.

He said he initially questioned whether the activity could have been caused by a technical problem, but his team doubted that explanation because the activity appeared across two separate platforms.

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“I said, "Well, is that a mistake? Is there a technical glitch on these platforms?” O’Leary said. “He said, "Unlikely, they're two different complete platforms.”

According to O’Leary, an initial review found similarities in IP addresses tied to the activity.

“So he had a first look, and he said, "Wow, there's a lot of similar IP addresses here,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary said the early review showed bot activity and foreign-based accounts spreading false information about Utah.

“And so we did an initial scan, and we realized, "Wait a second, there is bots operating here,” O’Leary said. “There are nefarious accounts out of the country dumping stuff that's completely false about Utah.”

O’Leary said his team hired a data science firm the next morning to investigate the source of the activity.

“So, we didn't wait,” O’Leary said. “The next morning, we hired and started working with a very advanced data science team, and what we learned was, to me, shocking, just stunning.”

He said the data continued updating in regular cycles.

“I, I couldn't believe it,” O’Leary said. “I mean, I still can't, because I'm getting the data by the four hour cycle.”

O’Leary said his team traced the content to two organizations.

“Now the content itself was coming from two batches, two like the actual pixels, the images were from the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the People's Dispatch,” O’Leary said.

He said searches showed both organizations were under investigation by multiple branches of Congress.

“I'd never heard of them before, you do a search on them, you'll find them under investigation by multiple branches of Congress,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary said many of the IP addresses in Utah were connected to Alliance for a Better Utah and Elevate.

“Most of the within the IP addresses in Utah were coming from two IP addresses, Alliance for a Better Utah, and one called Elevate,” O’Leary said.

He said his team reviewed IRS Form 990 filings connected to Alliance for a Better Utah and followed those filings through multiple entities.

“So we found out that Alliance for Better Utah was actually a tax filer, and we went to the IRS Form 990s which are public, and we started to drill down into what the filings were,” O’Leary said.

According to O’Leary, the filings led back to Arabella and Neville Singham.

“And lo and behold, multiple filings through multiple entities all over the world, all going back to something called Arabella Neville Singham under investigation, multiple branches of the government shares offices with the CCP,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary said he then asked his team for exact dollar amounts.

“So then I said, I want more,” O’Leary said. “Can you tell me the exact amounts? And we got those the next day.”

He described the amounts involved as substantial.

“We're talking about millions, hundreds of millions of dollars here,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary said the activity was not limited to Utah and appeared in other places where power increases or data center projects were being proposed.

“It's not just Utah, these guys are doing campaigns everywhere there's a proposed increase in power and or a data center,” O’Leary said.

He said additional research found references to the Salt Lake Party for Socialism and Liberation, Salt Lake Democratic Socialists of America and the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the People.

“More digging more Salt Lake Party for Socialism and Liberation, Salt Lake Democratic Socialists of America than this one today,” O’Leary said. “The Cuban Institute for Friendship with the People.”

O’Leary said he contacted people at the White House after reviewing the findings.

“And so I called my contacts at the White House,” O’Leary said. “I raised a flag, and I said, what the hell is going on here?”

He said those contacts connected him with law enforcement agencies and that his team later shared data.

“They put me in touch with various law enforcement agents,” O’Leary said. “We had a meeting last week with my entire data set team and multiple law enforcement agencies, and we started sharing data.”

O’Leary said he gave investigators extensive IP address records tied to the campaign.

“I gave them 90 pages of IP addresses, all from all over the place, all around the world, hitting these locations,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary said he also found similar activity in Alberta, Canada.

“You see where I'm going with this?” O’Leary said. “I'm not okay with this, and I found it in Alberta, Canada, too.”

He described the situation as a public relations conflict.

“So, it's there's a war going on, I guess, a PR war, or whatever you want to call it,” O’Leary said.

A reporter asked whether O’Leary was alleging that the groups were receiving money from the Chinese Communist Party to run a digital campaign against his projects.

“I mean, is what you're suggesting that these, these entities are sort of taking funds from the Chinese Communist Party and using those funds to sort of run a digital sort of blackmail campaign against your projects,” the reporter asked.

O’Leary rejected the word “suggesting” and said the filings supported his claim.

“I'm not suggesting it, it's an irrefutable fact,” O’Leary said.

“This is IRS 990 filings with the exact dollars and dates from exactly where it came from.”

“No, no, not in feuding, I'm saying that is exactly what's happening,” O’Leary added.

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