The founder and CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao has sued Bloomberg’s Hong Kong subsidiary for defamation for an article published in June.
On Monday, Zhao filed a lawsuit in Hong Kong against the defendant, Modern Media Co. Ltd., which publishes the Chinese edition of Bloomberg Businessweek, for a June article once titled and translated as “Zhao Changpeng’s Ponzi Scheme”. This was later twisted to “The Mysterious Changpeng Zhao”.
The English title of the report was “Can Crypto’s Richest Man Stand the Cold?”.
Changpeng Zhao is represented by José-Antonio Maurellet, SC, of Des Voeux Chambers.
The complainant argued that Modern Media is an important and influential local media. However, the statements are defamatory, and will result in hating and hurting Zhao’s image in the general public, especially in the crypto and business industry. It caused him a lot of distress and embarrassment.
The plaintiff then asked Modern Media to retract the defamatory statements and give a formal apology. The plaintiff also demanded that Modern Media make compensation which included aggravated damages.
On June 25, Zhao tweeted that the publishers “picked only old negatives” and ignored “all positive comments they got from [third] parties.” A Binance Spokesperson referred to the controversy as Zhao’s personal matter and the crypto exchange wouldn’t comment on the matter.
