On-Chain Sleuth Sued for Libel: Did He Accuse a Developer of Fraud?
• ZachXBT, a blockchain investigator, has been sued for libel by Jeffrey Huang (MachiBigBrother) after being accused of falsely accusing him of embezzlement.
• Huang claims that ZachXBT damaged his reputation through a Medium article which alleged that he embezzled funds from a project.
• ZachXBT has responded to the lawsuit calling it baseless and an attempt to chill free speech. He has vowed to fight back against it.
ZachXBT Sued for Libel
On June 16, 2023, blockchain investigator ZachXBT was sued for libel by plaintiff Jeffrey Huang (known as MachiBigBrother on Twitter). According to the social media post made by Huang, the suit was filed due to an allegation of false accusations and damage done to his reputation.
Accusations Made in Medium Article
The accusations stem from a Medium post written by ZachXBT titled “22,000 ETH Embezzled and Over Ten Projects Failed: The Story of Machi Big Brother (Jeff Huang).” In this post, ZachXBT accuses Huang of launching several pump-and-dump tokens and NFT projects including treasury management service Formosa Financial.
Funds Drained from Treasury
According to the article, 11,000 Ethereum (ETH) were drained from Formosa Financial’s treasury wallet on June 22nd 2018 with co-founder George Hsieh acting as the sole director pushing through a share buyback. Funds were then sent to numerous other wallet accounts shortly afterward which reportedly tied back to Jeff Huang/Mithril. Based on this data and other blockchain information obtained by ZachXBT, he concluded that these addresses led back to Jeff Huang/Mithril and blamed him for draining the funds from the project’s treasury wallet.
Huang’s Response
Huang responded by filing a defamation lawsuit against ZachXBT in United States District Court for the Western District of Texas alleging damage done to his reputation through false allegations made in the Medium post written by Zacbxbt.
Zachxbt’s Response
In response to this lawsuit filed against him, Zacbxbt called it baseless and an attempt at chilling free speech pledging that he would fight back against it.