Ava Labs CEO Emin Gunn Sirer has dismissed a report by crypto whistleblower CryptoLeaks alleging that the company struck a deal with a popular law firm to actively harm companies in the industry. Sirer called the report “conspiracy theory nonsense” and “inflammatory”. A Crypto Leaks report made public on August 26 alleges that Ava Labs, responsible for the research and development of Layer 1 blockchain startup Avalanche, paid law firm Roche Friedman to sue competitors such as Solana Labs.
After the video was published, Emin Gunn Sirer took to Twitter to deny any involvement, saying, “How can anyone so ridiculously believe in cryptolix as conspiracy theory nonsense? We can never believe anything illegal, immoral and just plain bad.” Will not indulge in misbehavior. These videos and provocative articles claim. Our technology and team speaks for itself.”
I think it’s accurate and it’s as bad as it looks. Fits in with everything I’ve seen before from both Serer and Roche. From a lawyer friend on Roche a few weeks ago: “The dumb version of mob lawyers. Bottom of the barrel.” https://t.co/H5eDpvY4Ng
— Ari Paul ️ (@AriDavidPaul) August 29, 2022
Posted allegations crypto leaks reportSeveral videos show founding partner Kyle Roche claiming that Roche Friedman was paid to support Ava Labs and attack its competitors, which include Binance, the Dfinity Foundation, and Solana.
In the video, the subject told to Roche appears to claim that it entered into an agreement with Ava Labs in September 2019 and was the first recipient of Ava Labs stock since Andreessen Horowitz.
“We made a deal where I agreed to provide legal services in exchange for a certain percentage of the token supply… that was September 2019,” he says.
The subject went on to claim that he was “around a point” in tokens and equities, possibly referring to a percentage point. By subject, their allocation represents about one-third of the allocation of Ava Labs co-founder and chief operating officer Kevin Cecnicki.
Several prominent crypto individuals have responded to the matter. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said he wasn’t sure the allegations were true and that “of course, #binance was a target.”
blocktower founder ari paul said That it “fits in with everything I’ve seen before from both Serer and Roche.”
