{"id":127450,"date":"2025-04-18T06:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T06:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=127450"},"modified":"2025-04-18T06:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T06:21:09","slug":"media-mogul-hits-justin-sun-with-countersuit-in-78m-sculpture-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=127450","title":{"rendered":"Media mogul hits Justin Sun with countersuit in $78M sculpture dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsAmerican film producer, record executive and art collector David Geffen has hit back at crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun in a countersuit disputing ownership claims over a multimillion-dollar sculpture.<br \/>\nThe billionaire American media mogul filed a counterclaim against Sun on April 16, calling the Tron founder\u2019s suit a \u201csham\u201d and adding claims of \u201cunethical and\/or illegal business activities.\u201d<br \/>\nSun sued Geffen in February, claiming that the statue was stolen from him by a former employee who then sold the artwork to Geffen in a deal worth around $65 million in artwork and cash.<br \/>\nSun purchased the Alberto Giacometti sculpture titled \u201cLe Nez\u201d at a Sotheby\u2019s auction in 2021 for $78 million, working with the assistance of his former art adviser, Xiong Zihan Sydney.<br \/>\nIn the 100-page countersuit, Geffen claims that Sun and Xiong \u201ccontrived this fraudulent lawsuit\u201d after they couldn\u2019t profitably sell two paintings that Geffen had exchanged for the sculpture, along with $10.5 million in cash.<br \/>\n\u201cSun\u2019s claims concerning Le Nez, a sculpture by the artist Alberto Giacometti, are utterly without merit and constitute a bad-faith, tortious attempt to interfere with Geffen\u2019s ownership of Le Nez,\u201d the counterclaim read.\u00a0<br \/>\nGeffen also claims that Sun was eager to sell the sculpture because crypto markets were crashing throughout 2022 and 2023 and his crypto platforms Poloniex and HTX were repeatedly hacked for hundreds of millions of dollars in 2023.\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\nAlberto Giacometti\u2019s Le Nez. Source: Fondation GiacomettKey disputes include whether Xiong confessed to stealing the sculpture, inconsistencies in Sun\u2019s claims about how much money Xiong allegedly stole, and Geffen\u2019s claim that Sun still has the money and the paintings, which are being held by art dealers.<br \/>\nFraudulent behavior allegations\u00a0<br \/>\nGeffen takes things further by alleging Sun has a history of fraudulent behavior, such as being sued by former employees for punishing them for refusing to engage in \u201cunethical and\/or illegal business activities,\u201d and making false statements in other lawsuits.\u00a0<br \/>\nRelated: Justin Sun \u2018not aware\u2019 of circulating reports about CZ plea deal<br \/>\nOn April 17, Sun\u2019s lawyer, William Charron, refuted essential aspects of Geffen\u2019s countersuit, according to ArtNet.\u00a0<br \/>\nMs. Xiong confessed to her theft, was arrested in China, and is in detention in China today, he said before adding:\u00a0<br \/>\n\u201cIn spite of these facts, Mr. Geffen goes all-in on the idea that Ms. Xiong was not a thief; that she supposedly spoke for Mr. Sun at all times; and that she is walking freely in China today. Mr. Geffen\u2019s pleading is extremely misguided.\u201d \u201cWe eagerly look forward to litigating this case and to recovering Mr. Sun\u2019s property,\u201d he said.\u00a0<br \/>\nIn November, Sun bought Maurizio Cattelan\u2019s Comedian \u2014 a banana taped to the wall \u2014 at Sotheby\u2019s New York for $6.2 million, and then ate the banana at a press conference in a publicity stunt.\u00a0<br \/>\nMagazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research<a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/david-geffen-hits-crypto-exec-justin-sun-with-countersuit-over-sculpture?utm_source=rss_feed&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsAmerican film producer, record executive and art collector David Geffen has hit back at crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun in a countersuit disputing ownership claims over a multimillion-dollar sculpture.&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127450"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}