A billionaire investor and one of the hosts of ‘Shark Tank,’ Kevin O’Leary, is warning businesses to stay out of New York following the more than $400 million judgment issued against President Trump following state attorney general Letitia James’ lawsuit. 

“I’m no different than any other investor — I’m shocked at this,” Mr. O’Leary told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto Monday. “I can’t even understand or fathom the decision at all. There’s no rationale for it.”

Since the pandemic, the outflow of individuals and businesses from New York has led to severe revenue shortfalls. In 2020, New York state’s gross tax revenues fell by $20 billion, and then dropped by another $25 billion in 2021. Most of those businesses and individuals went to lower taxed states like Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. 

In 2023, Bloomberg reported that the Empire State had lost nearly $1 trillion in Wall Street business after firms — like individuals and smaller businesses — fled the state. In total, 158 companies moved $993 billion in assets under management out of New York. Billionaires Carl Icahn and Paul Singer are just some of the magnates to pull their business from the state.

Mr. O’Leary says the business climate — coupled with this massive judgment against Mr. Trump — will lead to even less investment in the state.

After the penalty against Mr. Trump was announced on Friday, Governor Hochul told New York businesses to ignore fears about such a case being brought against their own firms. 

“I think that this is really an extraordinary, unusual circumstance that the law-abiding and rule-following New Yorkers who are business people have nothing to worry about, because they’re very different than Donald Trump and his behavior,” the governor told a local radio station. 

But Mr. O’Leary says Ms. Hochul’s “words fall on deaf ears to everybody. There’s nothing she can say to justify this decision.”

“It doesn’t matter what the governor says — New York was already a loser state. I would never invest in New York now, and I’m not the only person saying this.”

“In development and real estate right now, the highest asset class right now is data centers,” he continued. “I’m going to Oklahoma, North Dakota, West Virginia.” Mr. O’Leary added that there is “not a chance” he would ever build the $4 billion data center he and his partners are trying to construct in New York.