Key Takeaways:
- Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer called the allegations “conspiracy theory nonsense.”
- Cryptoleaks allege that Ava Labs had a deal with law firm Roche Freedman to use the legal system to target and ruin crypto organizations and rivals.
- Allegedly Roche Freedman was paid to hold up Ava Labs and to take legal action against its competitors, including Dfinity and Solana.
On August 26, Cryptoleaks put out a report claiming that Ava Labs had struck a “secret deal” with American law firm Roche Freedman to use the legal system “gangster manner” to “target and ruin crypto organizations. Responding to the allegations, Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer has allegations from CryptoLeaks labeling them as “conspiracy theory nonsense.”
“We would never engage in the unlawful, unethical, and just plain wrong behavior claimed in these self-serving videos and inflammatory article. Our tech & team speak for themselves”, his tweet reads.
Cryptoleaks, in its report, leaked a series of candid videos in U.S. Attorney Kyle Roche of Roche Freedman LLP allegedly explaining his partnership and relationship with Emin Gün Sirer and Kevin Sekniqi, the CEO and COO of Ava Labs.
In one of the videos, Kyle Roche allegedly said that Roche Freedman was paid to hold up Ava Labs and to take legal action against its competitors, including Dfinity and Solana.
CryptoLeaks claims that Roche Freedman and Kyle Roche agree to provide legal services to Ava Labs in exchange for AVAX tokens and equity in the company.
Roche further asserts that he and Ava Labs concluded a deal in September 2019. “We did a deal where I agreed to provide legal services in exchange for a certain percentage of the token supply… that was September 2019”.
“To divert the attention of regulators like the SEC and CFTC elsewhere, they widely litigate against other actors in the blockchain industry, accusing them of regulatory transgressions. This protects them by diverting attention elsewhere while increasing the regulatory risk of the target, which is doubly useful to them if they are some kind of competitor”, cryptoleaks alleges.
In one of the videos, Roche also states that they “used litigation services as a strategic instrument to support Ava Labs.”
In another video, he says that he is the reason Ava Labs haven’t been sued. Roche adds that to protect them, he ensures that the SEC and CFTC have other magnets to go after.
The same report also alleged that Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse funded a law firm to target competitor firms. Cryptoleaks claims that Roche, who founded Roche Freedman, was earlier working with Boies Schiller Flexner.
This firm represented Ripple in its lawsuit against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ripple CEO has, however, dismissed all the allegations. The cryptoleaks allegations have rocked the crypto community, with many standing by Ava Labs and many others seeking a proper explanation from the firm.
The allegations are severe, and Ava Labs might now have to put out a strong post explaining its stand but this time backed by facts.
