A BBC reporter walked out of an interview after a lookalike arrived in place of their intended subject, Logan Paul, in a recent documentary.
The YouTube star is facing accusations of misleading followers over crypto investments by promoting coins without disclosing his own financial interests.
According to the BBC, Paul promoted crypto investments to his followers without disclosing his own financial interests in them, which would have caused prices in the investments to soar. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The broadcaster also claimed that after the YouTuber-turned boxer tweeted about crypto coin in 2021, an anonymous crypto wallet – which stores keys for cryptocurrency transactions and allow its owners to manage their funds – connected to his public wallet traded and went on to make a profit of $120,000.
A BBC documentary, titled Logan Paul: Bad Influence, saw reporter Matt Shea seek to interview the social media personality turned WWE Star over the allegations.
The programme opens up with Shea travelling to Puerto Rico to visit the gym owned by both Logan and his brother Jake Paul – who recently defeated Mike Tyson in a controversial boxing match.
A BBC reporter was left frustrated after being confronted with a Logan Paul lookalike
Matt Shea was seeking to interview Paul over allegations of misleading followers over crypto investments
The BBC claims that Paul’s team ‘insisted’ they fly to the Caribbean island through Storm Ernesto, but rather than be met by Paul himself, Shea had the interesting experience of being confronted by a lookalike.
After noting that there were a ‘suspicious’ number of cameras in the room, with the staging already set up before Shea’s arrival, the reporter finally realises why.
‘You look different,’ he says, smiling as he understands what is happening.
‘I’m locked in, ready for this interview, do you have any questions?’ The Paul lookalike replies.
‘I have to say, the real Logan Paul looks very different,’ Shea retorts, before asking the rest of the social media star’s team: ‘Is Logan coming?’
The lookalike continues to claim he is a ‘serious person’, before Shea at last realises he is making no progress and says: ‘Let’s just get out of here, I’m not doing this.’
Before he can leave, though, a group arrives in the room holding placards of Shea’s face, while the fake Paul approaches him with a microphone as the group chants, seemingly anti-BBC messages.
‘So rather than defend himself against the allegations we’ve been investigating, Logan decided to troll us,’ Shea continues via voiceover.
Shea then leaves the interview after admitting ‘I’m not doing this’ to the lookalike
A group then entered the room with a megaphone and placards seemingly protesting against Shea and the BBC
‘Minutes after leaving the gym, we receive a letter from lawyers on behalf of Logan Paul, warning us against publishing our allegations.
‘But these allegations against him aren’t going away, in fact, they’ve been building since 2021.’
The BBC also claims that in 2021, the YouTuber shared a social media post about a particular crypto coin in 2021, and that ‘an anonymous crypto wallet with close connections to his public wallet had traded in the coin’.
It’s claimed that anonymous wallet made $121,000 (£92,000) in profit.
Paul is currently facing a multi-million-dollar lawsuit over failed crypto project CryptoZoo amid accusations of fraud.
The influencer launched the project in 2021 only to be met with controversy a year later when YouTube channel Coffeezilla produced a three-part docuseries accusing Paul and his company of scamming users.
DailMail.com approached Paul’s team for comment.
The game was supposed to allow users to buy base egg NFTs that would watch and grow into animal NFTs, which could then be bread with other NFTs.
Paul (right) was in attendance as his younger brother, Jake, defeated Mike Tyson in a controversial boxing match
In order to make $ZOO tokens, the game’s currency, users would need to hatch eggs.
Unfortunately the game did not work as intended, and later became the subject of the class-action lawsuit.
Paul, who has denied defrauding anyone, has pointed the finger at the games makers.
But despite his insistence that he’s not at fault, he has offered a $2.3million (£1.8m) buyback program aimed at settling the issue.
‘I’m going to take care of the people who made me look like this was a scam perpetrated by me,’ Paul said. ‘I didn’t make any f***ing money, bro. I lost half a million dollars on this.’
