Logan Paul sent a lookalike to answer questions from the BBC about his cryptocurrency transactions and accusations that he profited from misleading fans.
In the documentary Logan Paul: A Bad Influence?, which the BBC will air on Wednesday, filmmaker Matt Shea reveals that the social media personality (whose YouTube channel alone has more than 23 million followers) is accused of cheating. The company is investigating allegations that it promoted a cryptocurrency project without disclosing that it had funds. Financial interest in them grew, causing the price and the value of his own tokens to soar.
Armed with what the BBC claimed was “new evidence”, Shea tried to speak to Paul, but the documentary's producer and director, Jamie Tursin, said Paul always refused. “For several months Paul refused to speak to the BBC about our investigation,” he wrote in a BBC News article. “Then he relented and invited us to interview him at his gym in Puerto Rico.”
But Logan Paul wasn't the one sitting in front of the camera crew in Puerto Rico. After comically entertaining the notion with a few questions, Shea finally asks the lookalike, “Is Logan coming?” To which he replied, “I'm here, bud.” Laughing, Shia immediately set a time for the interview. “Let's get out of here. We're not doing this,” he said, at which point a crowd emerged and shouted expletives at the BBC. “The BBC is despicable. They employ pedophiles,” a man with a megaphone said, presumably referring to the Jimmy Savile and Huw Edwards scandal that rocked the broadcaster.
“Rather than defend us against the allegations we've been investigating, Logan decided to troll us,” Shay says in voiceover. Minutes after abandoning the interview, Shea said the production company received a letter from a lawyer on Paul's behalf warning of possible consequences if the findings were made public.
According to the BBC, just before Paul tweeted about a particular cryptocurrency in 2021, “an anonymous cryptocurrency wallet with close ties to his public wallet was trading the coin.” It is said that the anonymous wallet will generate a profit of $120,000.
