Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder and CEO of Binance, has filed a complaint against Bloomberg. The billionaire believes that the media published defamatory statements about him and his cryptocurrency trading platform. On Twitter, CZ revealed the behind-the-scenes of the case.
Changpeng Zhao files a complaint against Bloomberg
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder of Binance, has just filed a complaint against Modern Media Company Limited, the independent publisher behind Hong Kong-based media outlet Bloomberg Businessweek. In documents available online, we learn that the billionaire believes that the media published “false, malicious and defamatory statements” about him and Binance.
In the Hong Kong High Court, the CEO pointed out the presence of the expression ponzi scheme in the portrait made by Bloomberg. When he was contacted for a series of photos, the article was to be titled “Can the richest man in crypto stand the cold?”, in reference to the bear market. In the end, the article was published with the title “Changpeng Zhao’s Ponzi scheme”.
The Binance executive also regrets that Bloomberg reused the phrase twice more in posts on Twitter and Facebook to promote the article. For the billionaire, the journalist deliberately tried to ridicule him.
According to Changpeng Zhao, the English version of the article also contains defamatory passages. According to the entrepreneur’s lawyers, it contained “several serious and defamatory allegations against Zhao and Binance that were completely unsubstantiated and were obviously designed to mislead readers into believing that Zhao and Binance have engaged in illegal or unsavory activities.”
Binance’s founder speaks out on Twitter
On his Twitter account, Changpeng Zhao briefly expressed himself about the complaint. The executive did not mince his words. He said that “most of Bloomberg’s journalists are good, but this time they were bad”. He also returned to the circumstances of his interview with the journalists:
“Bloomberg: hey, we’re going to do a nice portrait on you, invite you for photoshoots, etc. Then we change the story at the last minute. We’re going to ignore all the positive feedback we’ve received from third parties. I only selected old negative reviews. And we still put you on the cover. WTF!? Unprofessional.”
CZ is therefore demanding the removal of the article, a correction of the defamatory statements as well as damages. Note that this is not the first time CZ has filed a complaint against a media outlet. In 2020, he had already filed a complaint against Forbes for similar facts before retracting his claim.
