Binance Files Lawsuit against Forbes over Misleading Article

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has filed a lawsuit against US-based Forbes media and two cryptocurrency journalists over a story published last month. The exchange said that the article published by Michael del Castillo and Jason Brett related to ‘Tai Chi’ document was defamatory.

Binance filed the lawsuit in US District Court in New Jersey saying that the mentioned article was false and misleading. The article in question by Michael del Castillo and additional reporting by Jason Brett says that the leaked document from 2018, dubbed ‘Tai Chi’ revealed how Binance deliberately avoided US regulatory scrutiny.

The exchange described the story as false and defamatory causing millions of dollars in losses as a result. Binance asked Forbes to take down the article and demanded compensatory and punitive damages in return. The company also sent defendants a letter demanding an apology for the misleading article.

According to the Forbes story, “The leaked Tai Chi document, a slideshow believed to have been seen by senior Binance executives, is a strategic plan to execute a bait and switch. The source says the document was created by former Binance employee Harry Zhou, a serial entrepreneur, who is the co-founder of Koi Trading, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange partially owned by Binance.”

The Filing

Binance cleared all rumors related to the mentioned story in the filing and said that the exchange never violated the regulatory requirements and always complied with rules. The company added that Harry Zhou has never been an employee of Binance. “The foregoing statements are false, misleading, and highly defamatory to Binance. Neither Binance nor anyone on its behalf created the purported 2018 slideshow presentation referenced in the Story. The person who Forbes claims created it, Harry Zhou, is not and never was an employee of Binance. Binance has not implemented any of the suggestions in the proposal, which was created by a third party. The Story falsely states that Binance both created and implemented the plan,” the company said in the filing.