Asian Tech Press (Mar. 11) -- Justin Sun, founder of TRON, a leading blockchain DAO ecosystem, has been exposed to be under criminal investigation by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in the United States.
The crypto industry's Trump announced on Chinese social media that he would not rule out countering media disinformation with a crowdfunding campaign for the U.S. presidency after local tech media outlet The Verge broke the story.
The Verge reported Wednesday that a number of current and former employees of Sun's various ventures across his cryptocurrency empire in China and the U.S. broke the story about him.
The sources said Sun ran a market-making team in Tron's Beijing office, which was suspected of doing insider trading and evading the Chinese government's initial coin offering (ICO) ban.
Sun was also alleged to have committed fraud, money laundering through immigration, aiding and abetting a crime, and conspiracy to defraud the U.S.
The IRS and FBI have already launched probes, and Sun may again use his citizenship of another country to avoid legal sanctions. The report also said that all the sources involved in breaking the story expressed concern that the move would lead to retaliation from Justin Sun.
TRON founder Justin Sun issued several tweets on Thursday denying the report and responding that it was blatantly defamatory and that legal action would be considered.
"Poloniex has always enjoyed a sterling reputation from its origin as a SAFU exchange," Sun said, "We have upheld the highest standard in safeguarding crypto assets for our clients with a proven track record without any major security breach in operation in the last 8 years."
The Chinese owner of cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex added, "It is a complete falsehood on the part of the Verge and the reporter and a blatant defamation about the Poloniex operation."
"As a matter of fact, Poloniex is not registered in Seychelles. The exchange does not operate in the US, nor does it serve US customers," Sun emphasized.
Sun also responded in his capacity as the WTO Ambassador Grenada, saying that he strives to uphold the highest standards over his endeavors in both public and industry domains. And he emphasized that he reserves the right to pursue legal remedies against the falsehoods brought on by any entities, and has retained Harder LLP as legal counsel.
On the same day, Sun also responded in a post on China's Twitter-like Weibo, saying, "As Grenada's Ambassador to the WTO, based in Geneva, I am neither an American nor do I have a U.S. green card, do not reside in the country, and I'm not involved in any U.S. tax issues at all."
The Trump-like crypto mogul continued, "If some of the shameless American media continue their disinformation against me without baseline, I do not rule out the possibility of countermeasures by running for president of the United States."
"(Running for) president of the United States is also essentially a fight over who spends more campaign money. I believe that with everyone's support, a successful campaign is not out of reach! The first thing after a successful campaign is that Taiwan will return to the embrace of the motherland, as well as the Diaoyudao Islands," he added.
Sun again posted Friday on Weibo, "I have decided to meet not only with the U.S. Ambassador to the WTO and relevant diplomatic officials of the U.S. State Department during my visit to the U.S. this year, but also to include a field trip to the FBI, where I will meet cordially with the Director of the FBI to reach cooperation in cross-border law enforcement, and invite an ordinary FBI employee to ride with me on a skyship into space."
Public information shows that Sun graduated from Peking University and the University of Pennsylvania, founder of the TRON network, and founder and CEO of the blockchain settlement network Ripple.
As the founder of TRON, Sun is also labeled as a post-90s entrepreneur, a talent from Peking University, a protégé of Jack Ma, and the first person to stand billionaire Warren Buffett up, etc.
However, self-marketing is Sun's most significant characteristic, and the birth of the above-mentioned labels is also attributed to his unparalleled abilities of creating publicity stunts.
A number of people from the cryptocurrency industry revealed that Sun can be described as a marketing genius. By getting a wave to ride as well as marketing hot topics, Sun has brought a lot of traffic to his crypto project.
Sun said that he had auctioned off in July 2021 a ticket for a flight to space with Blue Origin for $28 million, but was unable to travel with Jeff Bezos due to a scheduling conflict. And previously, one of Sun's most attention-grabbing things was the auction for a lunch with Warren Buffett.
In 2019, Sun won Warren Buffett's charity luncheon with a bid of nearly $4.57 million, $100 higher than the second-place, also the largest bid ever.
However, the lunch, which was scheduled for late July, was canceled due to Sun's "sudden bout of the kidney stones".
At the time, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported that local regulators had issued a border control order against Justin Sun since June 2018 due to alleged illegal fundraising and other issues.
For Sun all the marketing and hypes are just a padding for his accumulation of wealth.
In August 2017, Sun established the Tron Foundation in Singapore and began to formally launch the Tron project, followed by a surge in price of TRON coin. Justin Sun, who held a large amount of such coins, cashed out wildly at the high level of the secondary market and earned $300 million. Since then, Sun has been in the billionaire club.
Just a few days ago, the crypto industry's Trump got another title, appointed by the government of Grenada as the new Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva.
