{"id":77654,"date":"2023-04-21T16:46:23","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T13:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=77654"},"modified":"2025-09-11T00:30:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T21:30:39","slug":"binance-accuses-sam-bankman-fried-of-smearing-changpeng-zhao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/binance-accuses-sam-bankman-fried-of-smearing-changpeng-zhao\/","title":{"rendered":"Binance accuses Sam Bankman-Fried of smearing Changpeng Zhao"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Bankman-Fried repeatedly spread false or racist rumors about Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao before <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/ftx-group-files-for-bankruptcy-sam-bankman-fried-resigns-as-ceo\">the collapse of FTX<\/a>. This was stated by the exchange&#8217;s Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"twitter-tweet\\\" data-lang=\\\"en\\\">\n<p lang=\\\"en\\\" dir=\\\"ltr\\\">A great read by <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WilliamCohan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">@WilliamCohan<\/a> at <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PuckNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">@PuckNews<\/a>. One thing they missed, Sam was CONSTANTLY spreading fake rumors about <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cz_binance?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">@cz_binance<\/a>, because shading him as an \\&#8221;evil Chinese\\&#8221; was critical to his scam. You can&#8217;t pretend to be Luke Skywalker without Darth Vader.<a href=\\\"https:\/\/t.co\/oi9JxsqPyz\\\">https:\/\/t.co\/oi9JxsqPyz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Patrick Hillmann (@PRHillmann) <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PRHillmann\/status\/1649163010563358722?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">April 20, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\\\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\\\" charset=\\\"utf-8\\\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Hillmann cited a <a href=\\\"https:\/\/puck.news\/s-b-f-and-the-moochs-arabian-nights\/\\\">piece<\/a> in Puck magazine, where the story of the FTX collapse is told from the perspective of SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\\\">\n<p>One thing the authors missed was that Sam was constantly spreading false rumors about Zhao because portraying him as an &#8216;evil Chinese&#8217; was crucial to the fraud. You can&#8217;t be Luke Skywalker without Darth Vader,&#8221; wrote the manager.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Scaramucci <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/ftx-ventures-to-acquire-a-stake-in-skybridge-capital\">acquired a stake in SkyBridge Capital for $30 million<\/a>, and the hedge fund bought $10 million worth of FTX&#8217;s FTT tokens, which have since become virtually worthless.<\/p>\n<p>The partners were negotiating during a joint trip to the Middle East shortly before FTX&#8217;s troubles in November 2022. The exchange&#8217;s founder was seeking additional investments.<\/p>\n<p>According to Scaramucci, during meetings with officials in Dubai, Bankman-Fried spread rumors about the head of Binance. A colleague who participated in those talks told the entrepreneur about this conduct that violated the company&#8217;s policy.<\/p>\n<p>Scaramucci suggested that information about the former FTX CEO&#8217;s remarks reached Zhao and prompted him to <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/alameda-research-says-it-would-buy-ftt-from-binance-at-22-per-token\">sell<\/a> $500 million of Binance&#8217;s FTT tokens.<\/p>\n<p>Hillmann rejected his conclusion but confirmed that the company was aware of Bankman-Fried&#8217;s smear of its chief.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\\\"twitter-tweet\\\" data-conversation=\\\"none\\\" data-lang=\\\"en\\\">\n<p lang=\\\"en\\\" dir=\\\"ltr\\\">Sam denigrating CZ was the norm for us, <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WilliamCohan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">@WilliamCohan<\/a>. Had nothing to do with deciding to sell the worthless FTT on the company&#8217;s books.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Patrick Hillmann (@PRHillmann) <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PRHillmann\/status\/1649163254927687683?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\\\">April 20, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\\\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\\\" charset=\\\"utf-8\\\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In December 2022 Zhao <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/changpeng-zhao-calls-sam-bankman-fried-one-of-the-greatest-fraudsters-in-history\">called<\/a> Bankman-Fried &#8216;one of the greatest fraudsters in history&#8217;. He noted the founder of FTX&#8217;s effort to present him and others as &#8216;bad guys&#8217;, and to present himself as the hero.<\/p>\n<p>According to Zhao, FTX <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/changpeng-zhao-ftx-paid-43-million-for-fud-campaign-against-binance\">paid<\/a> $43 million to an unnamed media outlet for a negative piece about Binance.<\/p>\n<p>In January, Scaramucci <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/anthony-scaramucci-called-sam-bankman-fried-a-traitor\">called<\/a> his friendship with Bankman-Fried and called him a &#8216;traitor&#8217;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sam Bankman-Fried repeatedly spread false or racist rumors about Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao before the collapse of FTX. This was stated by the exchange&#8217;s Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillmann.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1254,935,1403],"class_list":["post-77654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-anthony-scaramucci","tag-changpeng-zhao","tag-sam-bankman-fried"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"37","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77656,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77654\/revisions\/77656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}