A furious Elon Mask has rubbished a journalist’s claims that the scandal-hit ‘crypto king’ Sam Bankman-Fried owns shares in Twitter.
The Tesla founder was accused by the disgraced former New York Times reporter Ben Smith of calling on the FTX wunderkind to help fund his mammoth Twitter deal.
Online news outlet Semafor alleged that Musk texted Bankman-Fried on May 5 and ‘invited’ him to keep his $100million stake in the social media company when it is transferred to private ownership.
Semafor is a startup set up last month by Smith, who published the now debunked Steele Dossier when he was editor-in-chief at Buzzfeed News.
Responding to the allegations in a story by Liz Hoffman, Musk hit out at Smith whose startup received a huge cash injection from Bankman-Fried.
He said: ‘All public holders of Twitter were allowed to roll their stock into Twitter as a private company, but he did not do so.
‘Your reporting made it falsely sound like he did, when in fact he owns 0%.For the last time, how much of you does SBF own? Stop dodging the question.
‘To be direct, the very real concern here is that you have been pushing a completely false SBF ownership of Twitter narrative while effectively being his paid shill.’
In another tweet, Musk said their claims were ‘flat wrong’ and there is no ‘gray area’ on whether Bankman-Fried owns a part of his company.
Self-proclaimed ‘Chief Twit’ Elon Musk slammed an ex-New York Times media reporter who accused him of allowing failed FTX chairman Sam Bankman-Fried to invest in Twitter, while SBF had invested in the media venture himself
Semafor editor and former media writer for the New York Times Ben Smith accused Musk of involving Bankman-Fried in the deal
Musk has repeatedly distanced himself and mocked Bankman-Fried since FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11, the same day that SBF stepped down as CEO
Billionaire Musk repeatedly distanced himself and mocked Bankman-Fried since FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11.
But Semafor claimed to have seen leaked texts between Musk and Bankman-Fried from May, in which the crypto boss says he ‘would love to roll over’ his $100million stake in Twitter.
Musk initially replied: ‘Sorry, who is sending this message.’
He then adds: ‘You’re welcome to roll.’
Bankman-Fried was among Semafor’s first investors in the site’s initial $25million round of fundraising – which is set to last it until early 2024.
The Twitter CEO also made clear that Bankman-Fried ‘does not own shares in Twitter as a private company’ and ‘neither I nor Twitter have taken any investment from SBF/FTX.’
Smith – who also used to be Editor-in-Chief at Buzzfeed and made the final decision to publish the roundly discredited Steele dossier which damaged the site’s credibility – has yet to respond to Musk.
When reporting for , he also suggested that the since proven Hunter Biden laptop story was a Trump campaign attempt to sell a story to the press.
Smith ha takeover last spring, saying the now-disgraced FTX founder set off his ‘bulls**t meter’.
Elon Musk has revealed he rejected crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried’s offer to help finance his Twitter takeover last spring, saying the FTX founder set off his ‘bulls**t meter’