Billionaire accused of fraudulent crypto ad on Meta dismissed in Australia

A case against Meta by Australian mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has been dismissed in the District Court of Western Australia. Forrest claims that the scam of crypto ads containing his image on meta forums has caused huge losses to innocent people. Prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence.

Forrest, chairman of Fortescue Metals and Australia's second-richest man, filed criminal charges against Meta under the anti-money laundering section of the Commonwealth Criminal Code in February 2022, saying the social media giant “knowingly profits from this illegal advertising cycle”. And he could not get rid of them. He had to get permission from the Australian Attorney General to file the charges.

In an open letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in November 2019, Forrest asked Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, along with other platforms, to take down fraudulent ads and prevent misuse of its image.

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Meta denied the allegations in December 2023. A spokesman for the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office confirmed to Reuters that the charges had been dropped due to a lack of evidence, but did not elaborate. In a statement to the Guardian, Forrest said:

“This shows that Facebook is above Australian law, that hard-working Australians are not protected and that fraud will continue to spread to people who are being duped by increasingly sophisticated technology on irresponsible social media platforms.”

“Meta does not condone cheating on its platforms and we continue to work tirelessly to prevent them and protect our users,” a Meta spokesperson told Reuters.

Forrest filed a civil suit against Meta in June 2022 in California's Northern District Court, citing six counts and claiming that “Facebook's self-help ad interface helped fraudsters set up ads.” Meta filed a motion to dismiss that lawsuit in January.

Since the billionaire took action on Meta, scams using Forrest's image have continued to appear. CyberTrac found Forrest's deeply fake images in Facebook ads in February.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has sued two people in China for allegedly being behind fraudulent apps that have been downloaded more than 100,000 times in China.

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