Tron founder Justin Sun has suffered a setback in his lawsuit against Bloomberg, with a Delaware judge rejecting a temporary restraining order and injunction against the news outlet over its publication of Sun’s personal crypto holdings.
The decision came Monday in a filing in the US District Court for the District of Delaware in which Judge Colm Connolly opposed Sun’s requests. Judge Connolly instead sided with Bloomberg and allowed details of Sun’s crypto holdings to remain public.
“Sun’s own highly detailed disclosure of his Bitcoin assets undercuts his representation that he is now under threat because Bloomberg published estimates of his cryptocurrency holdings,” Judge Connolly said.
Sun himself has disclosed far more specific information about his Bitcoin holdings than what Bloomberg published.
Judge Colm Connolly Bloomberg had apparently worked with Sun and his team since February to get a handle on his personal wealth as part of its plan to include the Tron founder in its annual Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In his complaint, Sun argued that Bloomberg had said it would keep his financial information confidential. However, several Bloomberg journalists testified that they had never told Sun the information he provided would remain confidential. Judge Connolly found that Sun had failed to “demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence” that Bloomberg had promised to keep the information private.
Sun also claimed that the details of his specific crypto holdings published by Bloomberg would increase his risk of “hacking, phishing, social engineering, kidnapping, or bodily injury.” The judge also rejected this argument, finding that Sun’s own disclosures of his crypto holdings on social media have been far more detailed than anything Bloomberg published.
According to the filing, Sun took issue with two specific sentences in Bloomberg’s coverage, which were:
Related: Tron Founder Justin Sun Sues Bloomberg Over Billionaires List Profile
Sun initially filed suit against Bloomberg on August 11, just hours after the news outlet published its Billionaires Index. Three days later, though, Sun withdrew his complaint, saying he and Bloomberg were engaged in talks to resolve the issue.
Apparently, those talks didn’t go quite as Sun had hoped, with the Tron founder filing a renewed motion on September 11, demanding Bloomberg “remove the amounts of any specific cryptocurrency owned by Mr. Sun from any of its online publication.”
Sun hasn’t yet commented on whether he intends to pursue other legal avenues in his fight against Bloomberg.
In related news, questions are being asked about why the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped a fraud and market manipulation case against Sun earlier this year, shortly after the Tron founder invested at least US$75 million (AU$113m) in the Trump-family-owned DeFi platform, World Liberty Financial (WLFI).
US Congressman Sean Casten and US Senator Jeff Merkley wrote to the regulator in September to request clarification around any communications between White House staff and Sun in the lead-up to the SEC dropping their case and any communications between Sun and the Trump family around their crypto ventures.
The pair also urged the regulator to keep a particularly close eye on Sun’s continued US dealings, pointing to his track record of dodgy conduct and close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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“We urge the SEC to commit to ensuring full oversight of Mr. Sun and his company’s attempts to access U.S. capital markets, with particular attention to his concerning ties to President Trump and his family,” the pair wrote.
“Mr. Sun has bragged to former colleagues about his connections to the Chinese government and has held official positions, including as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Additionally, Tron has been linked to a criminal organization that is reportedly connected to the CCP.”
The post Judge Denies Justin Sun’s Bid to Block Bloomberg Report on Crypto Holdings appeared first on Crypto News Australia.
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