Crypto company sues Forbes reporter Farivar

Cyrus Farivar, a tech reporter at Forbes, has been sued by the parent company behind a cryptocurrency called “Bitcoin Latinum” for an article he wrote about a lawsuit it filed, reports Mike Masnick of Techdirt.com.

Masnick reports, “Given that the word ‘Latinum’ apparently comes from a currency in Star Trek, and one of the claims in that original lawsuit, by Arshad Assofi, was that Basile had said ‘Bitcoin Latinum was a project that received $20 million from the producers of Star Trek,’ it was only natural for Farivar to ask Paramount about this and get this response:

“No one is familiar with this claim or with this ‘Bitcoin Latinum,’” emailed Jennifer Verti, a Paramount spokesperson. “This is not something that Star Trek is officially involved in at all.”

“In the article, Farivar also quoted SEC boss Gary Gensler saying that the crypto world is ‘rife with fraud, scams, and abuse.’ That quote is also straight from Assofi’s complaint. Farivar also made the very factual statement: ‘The world of cryptocurrency is awash with scammers and companies that don’t have actual products.’

“For whatever reason, the corporate entity behind this Latinum thing, GIBF GP, Inc., waited a year and a quarter then last week decided to sue Farivar in the Delaware Court of Chancery, in a ridiculously silly SLAPP suit that only serves to drive that much more scrutiny on Bitcoin Latinum. And, really, it should make everyone question whether or not you’d trust a cryptocurrency that is suing a reporter who merely quoted the lawsuit against them.”

Read more here.