ClaimsNouriel Roubini

“Binance used by a Chinese spy to pay his agent - a European corrupt politician - using crypto.”

Nouriel Roubini, economist, on X 15 December 2023 Post by @Nouriel on X, 2023-12-15 (X)

Factual Economics and markets

A Chinese spy used Binance to pay his agent, a corrupt European politician, in crypto, as reported by the Financial Times on 2023-12-15.

Unresolvable The public record could not settle it.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.

What would count as true or false

Judge as of 2023-12-15. True: the Financial Times reported, on or about that date, that a Chinese intelligence agent (or someone alleged to be one) used Binance to pay an agent who was a European politician, in crypto. Mostly true: the FT report exists and matches in substance, but a detail is overstated. For example, the politician was only alleged or suspected rather than shown to be corrupt, or the payment was alleged rather than proven. Mixed: such a report exists but differs in a material part, such as the platform, the nationality or the role of the people involved. Mostly false: there was a related report (for example on Binance and illicit finance), but it did not describe a Chinese spy paying a European politician. False: no such report exists and the story is shown to be wrong.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (4)

  1. E1 Former EU senator working for Chinese spies said Binance is ‘the future’ Protos · 18 December 2023

    “Woo replied with a single word, “Binance,” subsequently claiming that it’s “convenient and safe.””

  2. E2 Former EU senator working for Chinese spies said Binance is ‘the future’ Protos · 18 December 2023

    “As reported by the Financial Times, far-right politician Frank Creyelman was tasked by China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) spy agency with influencing decisions made by the European Parliament.”

  3. E3 Former EU senator working for Chinese spies said Binance is ‘the future’ Protos · 18 December 2023

    “Creyelman replied, “It is. Special. Never did it but it’s the future.””

  4. E4 Chinese spies recruited far-right Belgian politician as intelligence asset Belga News Agency · 15 December 2023

    “Chinese spies ran a far-right Belgian politician as an intelligence asset for more than three years, in a case that shows how Beijing has used influence operations to shape politics in its favour, the Financial Times reported on Friday.”

Reasoning

The evidence shows that the FT reported Chinese spies ran a far-right Belgian politician as an asset (E2, E4), and that Woo named Binance as "convenient and safe" (E1). None of the evidence items says that Binance was used, or put forward, to pay the politician in crypto, so the evidence does not settle the central part of the claim under the criteria.

Cite this claim

Nouriel Roubini, “A Chinese spy used Binance to pay his agent, a corrupt European politician, in crypto, as reported by the Financial Times on 2023-12-15.” (said 15 December 2023). Verdict: unresolvable. Reliability API, claim c_0616622f9dc1, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_0616622f9dc1

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

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All of them

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