iNvezz reports that celebrity lawyer, Charles Harder, has been hired by crypto trading firm, Binance, to help them fight a case against Forbes in which Binance claims that Forbes published a defamatory article that cost Binance millions.
iNvezz notes that Harder is famous for helping to bring down Gawker Media in a 2016 case in which Hulk Hogan (Terry Gene Bollea) won £86.96 million in compensatory damages as well as an additional £18.1 million in punitive damages, after Gawker Media uploaded portions of a sex tape involving Hulk Hogan. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and founder of Palantir, helped bankroll the lawsuit in revenge at Gawker having published a story that made mention of Thiel’s sexual orientation.
Harder has also represented many members of the Trump family, including President Donald Trump, in a case in which Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels filed sexual charges against him. Harder won on an anti-SLAPP motion.
Harder represented Melania Trump in a lawsuit involving the UK tabloid newspaper, the Daily Mail, which alleged that Melania Trump had been an escort during her time as a model. Harder won £2.19 million in damages as well as a public apology for Melania Trump.
Harder has represented Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in a case against Vanity Fair.
Binance’s hiring of Harder’s makes sense given his expertise in cases involving the media, particularly given his case against Gawker. Binance claims that Forbes’ article, Leaked ‘Tai Chi’ Document Reveals Binance’s Elaborate Scheme To Evade Bitcoin Regulators led to millions in dollars in losses. The article alleged that Binance had created an elaborate plan to deceive regulators and benefit from shifting revenues from Binance.US to parent company Binance, in order to help investors skirt US regulations around highly leveraged crypto-derivatives trading. Forbes produced a slideshow which it claims was created by a Binance employee as part of plans to create a new corporate structure to avoid US regulations.
Binance has fought back, stating that the Forbes’ article contains many misleading, false and defamatory statements. Indeed, Binance goes even further, alleging that the document was not created by any of their past or present employees, even though Forbes claim their source is a Binance employee. Not only is the document, fake news, to use the popular parlance, Binance claims it has never discussed the scheme in question. Binance has also sued the two Forbes journalists, Michael del Castillo and Jason Brett, who wrote the article.
Getting Harder on board shows that Binance is serious about going all the way with this lawsuit, though it must be noted that Harder is only slated to appear once in this case. This case is a great example of the kind of work that best personal injury attorneys handle. Often people are unaware that libel, slander, and defamation can form the basis of a personal injury lawsuit. Defamation of character occurs when someone says something that tarnishes your reputation. Slander and libel are types of defamation which, when they occur, can harm your business, cause you to become unhirable or to lose a job and face other consequences.
