Aviation Fuel Broker Sues Wall Street Journal for Defamation

Christopher Harborne, the proprietor of a Thailand-based aviation fuel brokerage, has leveled defamation charges against The Wall Street Journal, claiming the newspaper unjustly implicated him in engaging in supposedly illicit operations connected to stablecoin provider Tether and the cryptocurrency exchange #Bitfinex . In a lawsuit initiated on February 28 in a Delaware state court, Harborne and his enterprise, AML Global Ltd., are alleged to have been falsely accused by the Journal of "engaging in fraud, money laundering, and supporting terrorism, despite the Journal and its journalists having access to and acknowledging documents that definitively prove these allegations to be untrue." The contentious article from March 2023, titled "Crypto Companies Behind #Tether Used Falsified Documents and Shell Companies to Get Bank Accounts," suggested that Tether and its affiliate Bitfinex faced challenges in preserving their connections with the international banking network. According to the Journal, to counteract this, "certain supporters resorted to dubious intermediaries, counterfeit documents, and shell corporations to regain access, as evidenced by documents.