Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao is suing the Hong Kong publisher of Bloomberg Businessweek for defamation for an article published last month.
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Fast facts
- Zhao Monday filed a lawsuit in Hong Kong against Modern Media Co. Ltd., which publishes the Chinese edition of Bloomberg Businessweek, for a June article once titled and translated as “Changpeng Zhao’s Ponzi Scheme”. The traditional Chinese title was later tweaked to “Secret Changpeng Zhao”.
- The English version ran the title as “Can Crypto’s Richest Man Stand the Cold?”.
- The head of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume demanded a retraction and sought compensation, according to Hong Kong local media reports.
- On June 25, Zhao tweeted that the Bloomberg article “picked only old negatives” and ignored “all positive comments they got from [third] parties.”
- A Binance spokesperson told Forkast the case is Zhao’s personal matter and the crypto exchange couldn’t comment on the matter.
- “We understand that Binance has filed a lawsuit against Modern Media,” that published a translated version of a Businessweek story that first ran on June 23, a Bloomberg News spokesperson told Forkast. “The lawsuit refers to a headline that was not published in the original English language version of the story,” the spokesperson added.
- This is not the first time Zhao or Binance have sued the media for defamation. Binance sued Forbes in 2020 for defamation, but later dropped the case. The company went on to invest in Forbes in February.
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This story has been updated to reflect the comment from Bloomberg News.