August ended on a rather controversial note for Ava Labs and Roche Freedman LLP. These entities were accused of entering a “secret pact” to take down other crypto businesses. Videos of crypto attorney Kyle Roche discussing the same with his clients were leaked. While Roche and Ava Labs denied all these claims, the lawyer withdrew from class action suits against Tether and Binance, among others. However, the largest stablecoin issuer wasn’t very happy with the same and sought full termination of Roche Freedman as counsel.
The Tether [USDT] and Bitfinex class action lawsuit date back to 2019. These platforms were accused of manipulating the crypto market by employing unbacked USDT. Earlier this week, the law firm representing these firms, Elliot Greenfield of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP requested the court to remove Roche’s firm from the case. In addition, the law firm also wanted to ensure that all the documents issued by the defendants were returned or destroyed. They also expressed concerns about Roche Freedman sharing these documents with Ava Labs or other third parties.
Noting how Roche’s firm had sought documents that had no “apparent link to the claims and defenses in this lawsuit,” Greenfield said,
“as they [Roche Freedman] include not only confidential, competitively sensitive information about Defendants’ businesses but also information that, if disclosed, would threaten the privacy and security of Defendants and their customers.”
Here’s what Tether’s lawyers have to say about Kyle Roche
As mentioned earlier, Roche filed motions to withdraw from several class action lawsuits. However, Greenfield believes it wouldn’t do any good as Roche’s firm still has access to all discovery material. Therefore, the chances of him profiting from any potential recovery in the lawsuit were still high.
Further speaking about Roche, Greenfield added,
“He states that he is Ava Lab’s ‘crypto expert’ because he ‘sue[s] half the companies in the space’ and ‘know[s] where this market is going’ because he has ‘seen the insides of every single crypto company.’”
Additionally, Greenfield also pointed out that removing Roche’s firm would not prejudice the Plaintiffs. It should be noted that Selendy Gay Elsberg PLLC and Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP would continue representing the Plaintiffs.