I want to thank the media organizations that did the right thing. Slander cascades for clicks have no place if cryptocurrencies want to go mainstream. Once the audit report is out, we'll offer unrestricted interviews to these organizations to discuss all the details in the report and the whole story, and they are free to ask any questions they like.
We will create an index on a new website with the names of journalists and organizations still lacking the courage to be ethical and retract their stories. They will be on a lifetime permanent blacklist for sponsorships, interviews, partnerships, and any future hiring from all entities I own and operate. If those journalists move to a new organization, then we will blacklist it until they are terminated.
Real economic consequences have to be established for those who propagate defamation for profit. As another reminder, no lawsuit has been filed against us, no voucher buyer has claimed fraud, no regulatory body has made a statement or allegation, and no one has been arrested. Multiple independent organizations and individuals have stepped forward who were directly connected to the sale and publicly stated that there was no fraud or theft.
The only evidence asserted has been screenshots of code related to a fork with no meaningful context, which has been publicly known since 2020 and has been disclosed in the Shelley specification documents. The person alleging we stole funds has no connection to any of the core entities, the sale, or any of the voucher buyers. He asserts (without evidence) that former employees of IOG are somehow feeding him confidential information about fraud as the primary source of his insider knowledge.
What is extraordinary about this claim is that many of the employees, former and current, directly related to the redemption process, like @DanielTetsuyama, have already made public statements refuting fraud and theft, as have organizations like Lightning Communications that were involved in the effort to track down buyers post-sweep.
As we have stated, an independent law firm (McDermott, Will, and Emery) and a major auditor (BDO) have already been retained to conduct an audit that will be made publicly available https://t.co/TOQxi1sH75.
Given these facts and independent public statements, it is unethical, damaging, and irresponsible for a media agency to publish stories and headlines asserting a credible major scandal is present. They cause real economic harm, violate journalistic standards, and establish a precedent that anyone can be accused and defamed by a complicit media without meaningful evidence. If this is the standard that organizations like @Cointelegraph want to embrace, we no longer consider them credible or legitimate and will encourage all of our partners to do the same.
Only when there are economic consequences for egregious behavior will this behavior stop.
