# Reuters ### Attack on @MetaKovan - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/i/status/1461478865038032896) by [@myprasanna](https://twitter.com/myprasanna) on [[November 18th, 2021]]: - Today, dishonest [@Reuters](https://twitter.com/Reuters) journalists [@AABerwick](https://twitter.com/AABerwick) and [@e_howcroft](https://twitter.com/e_howcroft) published a hit piece on my dear friend [@MetaKovan](https://twitter.com/MetaKovan) -- fellow self-made billionaire from my home town of Chennai. As [@balajis](https://twitter.com/balajis) has highlighted time and again, this is a caution story of how reporters are unethical./1 - [@Reuters](https://twitter.com/Reuters) [@AABerwick](https://twitter.com/AABerwick) [@e_howcroft](https://twitter.com/e_howcroft) [@MetaKovan](https://twitter.com/MetaKovan) [@balajis](https://twitter.com/balajis) I have seen this before with attacks on my co-founder @parkerconrad; tech founders are usually very open and want to freely tell their side of the story, because wtf is there to hide? and then they meet reporters for the first time in their life. On a hit piece. Too late. /2 - First, let's talk about the dishonest claims in the article. It claims [@lendroidproject](https://twitter.com/lendroidproject) funds were depleted or missing. This is AFTER, they were shared a fin stmt that shows the token sale funds as "accounts receivable"; No mention in the article. Dishonest or incompetent? /3 - Second, Coins-E users lost money. It is an exchange [@MetaKovan](https://twitter.com/MetaKovan) started and sold to Saif Altimimi - a shady character. Easily googleable Sale doc here in 2014: [bit.ly/3kPw4ai](https://bit.ly/3kPw4ai); After the acq, Saif scammed the users in the exchange in 2016. Saif should go to jail. /4 - [@AABerwick](https://twitter.com/AABerwick) spoke with lots of users and KNEW this fact -- can be easily figured out from dates of the complaints. But Saif a shady loser is not a good target. [@MetaKovan](https://twitter.com/MetaKovan) is a succesful YC founder and billionaire who can get page views. /5 - Now one might think they were just incompetent and might be a honest mistake. No - They are thorough as your worst enemy and only feign incompetence when there is lot of public personal heat against the dishonest journalists [@AABerwick](https://twitter.com/AABerwick) and [@e_howcroft](https://twitter.com/e_howcroft). /6 - Sophisticated Founders who are receipient of these hit pieces know in advance that is coming. There is a motivated journalist calling all your friends for dirt, months at a time. And should usually never speak with these journalists. [@MetaKovan](https://twitter.com/MetaKovan) initially tried that. /7 - And then they bumped him at [@Dreamverse_life](https://twitter.com/Dreamverse_life) conference which he was organizing. First pretended they were impressed by the conf and wanted to take pics. And asked friendly questions. Then the dirty ones. By then you think, you could just clarify the truth like friends. Oops. /8 - These are not your friends. Even after knowing all this, they refuse to include [@MetaKovan](https://twitter.com/MetaKovan)'s verbatim statement. US was once a place where journalists wanted to really know the truth. Now as FB/Twitter is putting them out of jobs, they are forced to chase page views. /9 - Is this news? -- "A spokesman for the Monetary Authority of Singapore said it does not regulate Lendroid and referred Reuters to the Singapore Police Force. The police said they had not received any reports regarding Sundaresan or Lendroid." WTF? /10 - And the title of the report: "How an Indian metaverse king made his fortune" was the only thing missing from the article. I'll do their job and provide the real answer here: [twitter.com/myprasanna/sta…](https://twitter.com/myprasanna/status/1370792420456079360) /11 - How much does one stoop for sensationalism? Mouths to feed, brings out the ugliest of humans. So how to deal with parasites like this? [@balajis](https://twitter.com/balajis) has spoken a lot about this. /12 - First, if a hit piece is coming, hire a crisis management PR firm. They will help stall the offense by coaching all your friends not to talk. /13 - Then, they will engage with the reporters and ask about the accusations. They'll respond with facts and will threaten to escalate to journalist's manager if dishonest, before publishing. They'll demand a 1-2 line verbatim rebuttal to be included. /14 - Finally, hours before the hit piece, it's a good idea (like [@elonmusk](https://twitter.com/elonmusk) / [@brian_armstrong](https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong) / zuck) does to go direct to your social media followers and tell them this is coming. Also talk about the dishonest motivations of reporters. /15 - If enough people do it, reporters do not have any power. They are losing credibility with their audience fast. And in the age of social media, audience can go direct for news instead of relying on these downright sketchy intermediaries. /16