Tether Shareholder Files Defamation Lawsuit Against The Wall Street Journal Over False Accusations
Summary:
Christopher Harborne, a shareholder of the crypto firm Tether, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Dow Jones & Company, the parent entity of The Wall Street Journal. The lawsuit is based on an article published in 2023 that accused Harborne and his company AML Global Ltd of fraud, money laundering and supporting terrorism. According to Harborne, these accusations were false and The Wall Street Journal possessed the documents to prove it. The contentious portions of the article have since been removed.
Tether shareholder and AML Global Ltd company owner, Christopher Harborne recently filed a defamation lawsuit against Dow Jones & Company, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal. The case was brought on by an article from 2023 that falsely claimed illegal activity involving Tether and Bitfinex crypto firms. This information comes courtesy of the investigative platform, OffshoreAlert. Harborne owns nearly 13% of Tether, a crypto firm, a stake he reportedly earned due to Bitfinex's compensation scheme after a 2016 hack. However, Harborne refutes any claims of holding an executive role within the company.
The reported defamation arises from allegations made by The Wall Street Journal that Harborne and AML Global were responsible for fraud, money laundering, and even supporting terrorism. These allegations were made despite the Journal possessing documentation that disproves these accusations.
The contentious article, published in February 2023, asserted that Bitfinex crypto exchange companies were having difficulties retaining access to global banking in late 2018. This led Bitfinex supporters to reportedly use questionable intermediaries and fake documents to retain access. The article also included a description of Harborne, labelling him as a British-Thai citizen with a substantial business presence in aviation, technology investment, and cryptocurrency within Thailand over the past two decades.
The lawsuit cited specific portions of the article related to Harborne and AML Global's application for an account at Signature Bank. However, as of February 21, 2024, these sections had been removed from the Journal's article, and an editor's note had been added.
When the article was published in 2023, Tether's Paolo Ardonio discredited it, predicting it would only aid Tether's growth. 2023 saw substantial growth for Tether's stablecoin USDT (USDT), with a market value increase of over $20 billion, even as other players faced potential fallouts from the U.S. finance system. Consequently, Tether recorded a net profit of $2.85 billion in Q4 of 2023, mainly from passive income generated by U.S. Treasury securities that back its reserves.
Lawmakers in the US have shown signs of concern, leading to proposed crypto regulations due to doubts and fears over cryptocurrencies.
Published At
3/3/2024 8:04:37 PM
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