April 22 (Cointime) - Patrick Hillmann, the Chief Strategy Officer at cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has accused former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of spreading "fake rumors" about Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Hillmann alleged that Bankman-Fried used his influence to portray Zhao as an "evil Chinese" to further his own alleged scams at FTX. While FTX and Binance had financial ties, their public relationship was often contentious, both before and after FTX's bankruptcy filing in November 2022.

“Sam denigrating CZ was the norm for us,” Hillman added. “Had nothing to do with deciding to sell the worthless FTT on the company's books.”