In May, “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary made a series of media appearances accusing some vocal opponents of his data center plans in Box Elder County, Utah, of being foreign-backed agents.

Now, Mr. Wonderful is being sued for defamation.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal district court in Utah, Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies and two of the groups’ founders sued O’Leary and Fox News, alleging that O’Leary falsely accused them of being foreign agents backed by the Chinese Communist Party.

The complaint identifies at least 10 media appearances between May 11 and June 3, in which O’Leary repeated the allegations.

In a Fox News segment, O’Leary accused Elevate Strategies co-founders Gabi Finlayson and Jackie Morgan of being “proxies of the Chinese government.” Finlayson is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The complaint also includes a separate defamation lawsuit filed by the Alliance for a Better Utah and its founder, Joshua Kanter, against Fox News for airing O’Leary’s comments.

A Fox News Media spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider that the network would “vigorously defend” against the lawsuit and that it “publicly corrected the record on every show where comments by on-air guest Kevin O’Leary were made, all of which were widely publicized.”

O’Leary has also tried to clarify some of his accusations.

“I have recently appeared on several news shows and would like to clarify that I have no evidence that Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson, Taylor Knuth or Josh Kanter are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party,” he wrote in a June 25 Instagram post.

The plaintiffs say O’Leary’s comments have caused “serious reputational harm and significant economic harm,” including loss of customers and business opportunities. The lawsuit seeks monetary and punitive damages, although the dollar amount was not specified.

“Our clients were exercising their right to express their opinions about the future of their community,” Matthew Platkin, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said in a statement. “Rather than respond to their concerns, Kevin O’Leary decided to launch a national smear campaign based on absurd falsehoods that Fox News repeatedly asserted and amplified. This lawsuit seeks to ensure accountability when powerful people use lies as a weapon to silence critics.”

In a statement to Business Insider, Jeffrey Neiman, O’Leary’s attorney, said his client will defend himself against the lawsuit and may file counterclaims. The lawyer called the case a “cash grab” and said the plaintiffs declined an invitation to discuss the project.

“Plaintiffs have called into question its operations, financing and coordination,” Neiman wrote. “We welcome you and look forward to discovering and uncovering the facts surrounding the disinformation campaign against the data center in Utah.”

At the center of the controversy is Project Stratos, a massive hyperscale data center campus near the Great Salt Lake that was initially approved for 40,000 acres and is expected to require up to 9 gigawatts of power at full construction.

Residents have expressed concerns about water use, air quality, noise, traffic and the project approval process. The backlash led Gov. Spencer Cox to issue an executive order tightening rules for data center development in the state, covering water resources, wildlife protection, utility rates and public participation.

Alliance for a Better Utah and five state residents filed a separate lawsuit in June seeking to stop Stratos by targeting the approval process behind the project.