2 days ago
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World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency task co-founded by President Donald Trump and his sons, connected Monday sued Justin Sun for defamation, alleging that the crypto billionaire engaged successful a "public smear campaign" to onslaught the business.
The lawsuit, filed successful the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Florida, seeks unspecified damages and a nationalist retraction of statements Sun made connected societal media astir World Liberty Financial.
The allegations people an escalation successful the struggle betwixt World Liberty Financial and Sun, a large investor. In April, Sun sued the startup for fraud, claiming helium was illegally blocked from selling integer tokens worthy up to $1 billion.
"Scorched earth"
In its lawsuit, World Liberty Financial alleges that Sun stake against the company's crypto tokens, which commercialized nether the $WLFI ticker, and made alleged straw purchases by utilizing 3rd parties to acquisition tokens to conceal his identity. The institution besides said it froze tokens owned by 1 of Sun's companies to "protect World Liberty and the broader assemblage of $WLFI holders."
"Nevertheless, alternatively than enactment constructively with World Liberty to code the misconduct, Sun embarked connected a scorched world unit run against World Liberty to effort to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from World Liberty, including having his counsel endanger litigation designed to 'light World Liberty connected fire'," the suit claims.
"When World Liberty refused to capitulate to Sun's threats, Sun launched his nationalist smear campaign," the institution further alleged.
Sun's attorneys didn't instantly respond to a petition for comment.
In a post connected X, Sun connected Monday dismissed World Liberty Financial's suit arsenic "a meritless PR stunt." He added, "I basal by my actions and look guardant to defeating the lawsuit successful court."
The World Liberty Financial suit alleges that Sun made mendacious claims connected societal media, including allegations that the institution "treat[s] the crypto assemblage arsenic a idiosyncratic ATM" and that its governance practices were improper. World Liberty Financial besides accused Sun of employing online influencers and "fake social-media 'bot' accounts to amplify his lies."
"Collectively, Sun's posts were viewed millions of times and generated wide media coverage," the suit claims.
Because Sun is simply a salient fig successful the crypto industry, his comments were "profoundly harmful to World Liberty," the institution alleges.
Sun, who founded the decentralized blockchain level Tron successful 2017, has a nett wealthiness of astir $12 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In 2024, helium made headlines for his $6.2 cardinal acquisition of a portion of conceptual creation consisting of a banana duct-taped to a wall.
Edited by Alain Sherter
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