Tether has submitted a motion to exclude Roche Freedman from the class action lawsuit. In addition, the legal counsel for Bitfinex and Tether has requested that the law firm ensure that any defendant-issued papers have not been shared and either return them or destroy them.
After filing a petition to be removed as counsel in the case, Tether (USDT)-issuer Tether is demanding that the law firm Roche Freedman be “terminated” from its role as counsel for the Bitfinex and Tether class-action lawsuit.
The rise of the dispute
Elliot Greenfield of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP filed a request for a court order on Wednesday on behalf of the legal firm that represents Tether and Bitfinex. The motion asked the court to remove Roche’s law company from the case altogether and to confirm that they have either returned or destroyed all defendant-issued papers and have not shared them with any third party, including Ava Labs. Greenfield also demanded that Roche’s law firm certify that they have returned or destroyed all.
The request comes shortly after Roche submitted a notice of motion to withdraw from the Tether class-action lawsuit amid the ongoing fallout from a recent CryptoLeaks expose. The expose alleged that a United States lawyer had a secret pact to “harm” Ava Labs competitors in exchange for AVAX tokens and Ava Labs equity.
Greenfield’s remarks
Greenfield said Roche’s remarks that were published on the CryptoLeaks website expressed a “severe worry” that Kyle Roche “may be abusing the discovery process” and “misusing material” he obtains via litigation.
Greenfield said that the issues are very pertinent to the case, and he highlighted the fact that Roche Freedman LLP “has issued a series of document requests seeking material that has no obvious relation to the claims and defenses in this complaint.”
Greenfield stated that the withdrawal of Kyle Roche from the case “does little, if anything, to address the serious issues regarding the potential misuse of discovery:” Even though Kyle Roche has filed motions to remove himself and others from the case, Greenfield stated that the withdrawal of Roche “does little, if anything, to address the serious issues.”
Greenfield further said that the “removal would not disadvantage Plaintiffs” since the plaintiffs would continue to be represented by “two other major and experienced companies,” namely Selendy Gay Elsberg PLLC as well as Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP.
The class-action complaint that was brought against Tether and Bitfinex in 2019 said that the defendants manipulated the cryptocurrency market by creating unbacked USDT “in an attempt to convey to the system that there was a massive, organic desire for cryptocurrency assets.” In the last few days, Roche has withdrawn from the cases that it was involved in against Binance, Solana, Tron, BitMEX, Nexo, and Dfinity.
Exposure of Roche Freedman’s ‘intoxicating’ links to Avalanche/Ava Labs
The legal company that represented Ira Kleiman in his unsuccessful action against Dr. Craig Wright has been exposed for launching nuisance lawsuits against Ava Labs’ blockchain competitors.
Roche Freedman is well-known for initiating class action lawsuits against blockchain businesses because they deceived customers by marketing unregistered securities as tokens. Videos published by Crypto Leaks indicate that these lawsuits have nothing to do with protecting common ‘crypto’ investors. Instead, it seems that the cases are meant to cripple Ava Labs’ competitors, so increasing the value of AVAX, of which Roche Freedman’s partners were handed substantial amounts in addition to an ownership share in Ava Labs.
Final Thoughts
Roche explains in one video that his company shared office space with Ava Labs beginning in 2019 and that Roche personally resided with Ava Labs co-founder and chief operating officer Kevin Sekniqi after Roche’s relocation from New York to Miami. Roche adds that he trusts Gün and Sekniqi “like brothers” and that they have “the same interest.”
