Binance Holding Ltd. filed a defamation suit against Forbes Media LLC before the U.S. District Court of New Jersey. The petitioner is suing Forbes and two of the journalists over a story that was published last month.
.@binance sues @Forbes for its “Tai Chi” story.
“Binance does not violate, and fully complies with, all applicable laws, rules, and regulations in its operations. Binance also does not seek to evade or “side-step” any regulators in any jurisdictions.”
@cz_binance pic.twitter.com/n4PoLWaMcq
— Michael Kapilkov (@mmviii_2008) November 18, 2020
The questioned news article claimed that Binance was “intentionally” deceiving U.S. regulators and “surreptitiously profiting from crypto-investors” thru an “elaborate corporate structure.” The mentioned article has been reported based on a document authored by an official from Binance. It should be noted that Binance was quick to deny any truth in the allegations while contesting the allegation that a Binance employee wrote the “Tai Chi” document.
Forbes stated that Binance made plans to use a U.S. company named the “Tai Chi entity,” later founded as Binance US, to distract the regulators.
As noted previously, the CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao (C.Z.) responded immediately after tweeting that the statements and accusations in the article were incorrect, naming them as “FUD.”
In the lawsuit, Binance claimed that Forbes and its journalists had harmed the crypto-platform by publishing an article that “contains numerous false, misleading and defamatory statements.” It said,
“All of these statements by the defendants, as well as the full list of statements from the story provided further below, are false and defamatory. Among other things, neither Binance nor anyone on its behalf created the purported 2018 slideshow presentation referenced in the story.”
Binance also claimed that Forbes must take down the article, and also pay for the damages determined at the time of trial. But as of now, the article continued to go live.
It is an exciting development, especially with the cryptocurrency community remains true to its libertarian ideals and its belief in the freedom of speech. While Binance had suggested that it was considering legal action, not many thought that the crypto-platform would go through with it. The only prominent defamation suits have lit up the crypto community involving Craig Wright.
The recent development comes on the back of the year that has seen Binance against some uncomfortable questions. Towards the beginning of the year, the exchange also dodged a few questions regarding where its headquarters is after Maltese authorities denied that the exchange was in its jurisdiction.
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