According to a recent investigation published on The Verge, crypto billionaire Justin Sun has been tied to a slew of wrongdoings.
According to the article, Sun, who co-founded Tron and also controls BitTorrent and Poloniex, has broken practically every law in the book since he began his crypto odyssey.
Justin Sun’s long list of controversies
Since 2017, the polarising CEO has been involved in a slew of scandals ranging from tax evasion to market manipulation. Following his expulsion from China due to the Tron ICO, his acts as CEO of BitTorrent and Poloniex in the United States may expose him to legal action.
Sun is described in the blog by Christopher Harland-Dunaway as an escape artist who has always managed to get himself out of legal trouble.
According to the journalist, several former and current employees and official documents confirm these allegations against the Tron founder.
Insider trading is one of the charges made in the report, which claims that Tron’s market-making crew acquired massive tokens after the company made a remarkable public statement.
This pushed up the price, making it easy to sell at a hefty profit. This type of market manipulation is illegal in stock trading and could expose crypto traders to liability.
Former colleagues have also accused him of being overbearing and occasionally directing illicit activities. According to a former employee, when Sun planned to launch the BitTorrent Token, he attempted to escape responsibility by portraying it as a utility token.
As a result, he ordered BitTorrent’s chief compliance officer, David Labhart, to write a paper demonstrating that BTT was a utility token rather than a security. Although Labhart declined to do this, Sun nonetheless launched the token by airdropping it to BitTorrent users.
His crypto exchange, Poloniex, is also accused of unethical and dangerous operations. These include registering in the Seychelles islands to avoid accountability, although the majority of the employees are based in Boston, and reducing the KYC rules.
Justin Sun was also reported to have retrieved about 300 BTC belonging to exchange users through a scheme dubbed “Operation Couch Cushions,” but converted them for his own use by disguising the transaction trace of the currency.
Justin Sun tries to fight back
On the other hand, Sun has denied the majority of the charges made in the report. Poloniex, he claims, is a safe exchange with cutting-edge KYC technology. Poloniex is not registered in Seychelles, and it does not operate in the United States, according to him.
He went on to say that in all of his contacts as Grenada’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization, he adheres to the highest standards. He also suggested that he may take legal action.
