Michael O’Leary, the CEO of budget airline Ryanair has bashed bitcoin, saying he would “never invest one cent” in it, and arguing he believes the flagship cryptocurrency is “equivalent to a Ponzi scheme.”
The executive’s comments came while speaking to The Times, in response to a bitcoin auto-trading scheme that used his image and named to fake a celebrity endorsement in the product. These scams are well-known and have affected various celebrities, including British financial expert Martin Lewis and billionaire Sir Alan Sugar.
The ad featured Michael O’Leary was reportedly hosted on an umber of high-profile websites and depicted a fake interview with Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show where the CEO of Ryanair supposedly said he was glad he tried bitcoin because “it was some of the biggest and easiest money I have ever made.”
Through a supposed auto-trading bot ion ‘Bitcoin Lifestyle’, O’Leary made “tens of thousands of euros a day on autopilot,” according to the fake interview. When asked about these ads by The Times O’Leary didn’t just distance himself from them, he made it clear he isn’t a fan of bitcoin.
The CEO of the budget airline clarified he would never invest in bitcoin, and advised The Times’ readers to avoid it “like a plague.” He said:
I have never, and would never, invest one cent in bitcoin, which I believe is equivalent to a Ponzi scheme. I would strongly advise everyone with any shred of common sense to ignore this false story and avoid bitcoin like a plague.
Cryptocurrency scams being promoted on social media and other platforms are not new. These scams have been promoted on several networks including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others. This year Ripple and its CEO Brad Garlinghouse sued YouTube over the firm’s failure to stop fake XRP giveaways from being promoted on the platform.
Soon after Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak sued the platform for allowing scammers to use his name and image promoting BTC giveaway scams. YouTube itself denies liability, claiming the content is created by third parties.
Featured image via Pixabay
