Justin Sun frequently tangles with the legal system, historically as a defendant, but increasingly as the plaintiff.
These cases often involve firms of which Sun disclaims ownership but in which he’s deeply involved nonetheless.
First Digital hits back at Techteryx
The lawsuit that has most recently entered the public consciousness is between Techteryx and First Digital Trust.
This suit contains allegations from Techteryx, the firm behind TrueUSD (TUSD), and alleges that First Digital Trust misappropriated portions of the TUSD reserves. It also discusses how large portions of the TUSD reserves were invested in a fund that is now refusing to honor redemptions.
Sun asserts that First Digital Trust’s alleged insolvency is the reason for this rejection.
Read more: First Digital defends FDUSD from Justin Sun’s attacks
First Digital Trust, which is behind the FDUSD stablecoin, has taken to X to claim that both the firm and FDUSD are fully solvent.
Furthermore, First Digital Trust suggests that the reason why TrueUSD’s redemption requests have not been honored is that it has been unwilling to disclose the ultimate beneficial owner after it acquired TrueUSD.
It has long been rumored that Sun is behind Techteryx and TrueUSD, but Techteryx has repeatedly denied this in public and in comments to Protos. Nonetheless, he has been described as an “Asia market advisor” to the firm, has described himself as a “partner market maker,” and was willing to provide $500 million in liquidity to the firm.
Sun, Huobi, and the $30M hole
Sun is also engaged in a dispute with Li Lin, the founder of Huobi (now HTX). This dispute largely centers around whether or not Huobi had a $30 million hole in its books when it was sold to About Capital Management.
Li has denied these claims, stating that the so-called hole was a margin call it still considered recoverable and that the exchange’s revenue had already covered the hole.
Sun attempted to undercut this claim by claiming that Li had previously indicated that the $30 million would be returned to Sun.
Read more: Justin Sun and Huobi play shell game with ownership
This dispute is only the most recent example of the feud between these two entrepreneurs. Li had previously filed a suit claiming that About Capital Management (the firm that acquired the exchange) was not entitled to use the Huobi name, and a court eventually agreed.
HTX is another case where Sun and the exchange have publicly denied his ownership, but he obviously is deeply involved with the exchange, and its reserves heavily favor his projects.
Coinbase wants to know who owns BiT Global
BiT Global, the Sun-advised custodian that has become involved in the operations of wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) has been suing Coinbase for its decision to delist WBTC.
The original lawsuit alleged that Coinbase had engaged in monopolistic practices by delisting WBTC while also listing its own tokenized bitcoin (BTC) product, cbBTC.
However, so far, the judge has not been willing to force Coinbase to relist WBTC.
Read more: How involved is Justin Sun with WBTC’s new custodian BiT Global?
Coinbase, like ARIA in the First Digital suit, claimed that part of the problem was that BiT Global would not disclose the ultimate beneficial owner of BiT Global.
One of the two directors of BiT Global is Jennifer Jiang, who is also an executive for Techteryx. Jiang was also a director for TRON Network Limited, a director for Augustech LLC (a firm set up to provide services to Sun-owned Poloniex), a director for DTV Limited, a firm connected to BitTorrent that’s owned by Sun, and previously owned Huobi Europe Technology LTD.
Sun gets seller’s remorse
Sun has filed suit against music mogul David Geffen, alleging that Geffen purchased the “Le Nez” sculpture after Sun’s former art advisor, Xiong Zihan Sydney, misappropriated it by forging Sun’s signature.
Geffen’s lawyers described the suit from Sun as “seller’s remorse” and pointed out that he had received two pieces of art and over $10 million in cash from Geffen for this sculpture.
Sun’s suit claims that Xiong “confessed to the crime” after he inquired about the status of the sale.
Read more: Justin Sun complaint leads to CoinDesk removing banana article
Sun is also the defendant in a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit, which was stayed after he invested heavily in Trump-affiliated World Liberty Financial.
