A fiery Elon Musk pushed back on published reports that disgraced FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried owns Twitter shares.
In a series of tweets Wednesday afternoon, the billionaire called out Semafor for its “fake news” report that alleged Bankman-Fried rolled his $100 million holdings of Twitter, when it was public, into private shares, according to Fox News.
“All public holders of Twitter were allowed to roll their stock into Twitter as a private company, but he did not do so,” Twitter’s new boss tweeted. “Your reporting made it falsely sound like he did, when in fact he owns 0%.”
Semafor — which launched last month with Bankman-Fried as one of the startup’s main investors — said the fallen crypto king owned a sizable chunk of Twitter, according to an FTX balance sheet prepared after Musk completed his takeover on Oct. 28 and then circulated to investors.
“SBF/FTX do not own shares in Twitter,” Musk said, referring to Bankman-Fried’s better-known moniker.
Elon Musk is accusing Bankman-Fried of “bribing media.” Bloomberg via Getty ImagesSemafor’s Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith defended his outlet’s reporting and produced the alleged private exchange between Musk and Bankman-Fried, where Musk seems to encourage the FTX founder to roll his shares.
Musk again debunked the report and challenged Semafor’s independence in a later tweet.
“Semafor is owned by SBF. This is a massive conflict of interest in your reporting.”
Musk also noted that Bankman-Fried invested in Vox and The Intercept.
“If SBF was as good at running a crypto exchange as he was at bribing media, FTX would still be solvent!” jabbed Musk.
Elon Musk through Twitter is taking aim at Kara Swisher, a prominent tech reporter. AFP via Getty ImagesRenowned tech reporter Kara Swisher joined the fray and sided with Semafor.
“Of course Elon took the $ and then dunked on SBF, because it is all a game that you all aren’t supposed to see,” she tweeted
Musk responded, “There was a time when you cared about the truth. That is long gone.”
Musk also discredited a similar claim about Twitter’s ties to Bankman-Fried that was published by Business Insider.
“Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly owns a $100 million stake in Elon Musk’s Twitter,” a news headline from the outlet read.
To which Musk replied: “[Business Insider] is not a real publication.”
Fox News contributed reporting
