Gemini sues Digital Currency Group, Barry Silbert over alleged fraud
Crypto alternate Gemini is suing Digital Foreign money Group and its founder Barry Silbert, with Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss accusing Silbert of being “the architect and mastermind of the DCG and Genesis fraud in opposition to collectors.”
The transfer got here after Winklevoss gave Silbert an ultimatum final week to instantly pay $640 million he says is owed to Gemini’s Earn shoppers or face a lawsuit.
“This lawsuit seeks to recuperate from Defendants the damages and losses that Gemini has incurred as a direct results of DCG’s and Silbert’s false, deceptive, and incomplete representations and omissions to Gemini, and Defendants’ function in encouraging and facilitating Genesis’s fraud in opposition to Gemini,” in keeping with the criticism.
Winklevoss has argued that Gemini Earn customers are caught in limbo with over $1.2 billion of belongings caught in Genesis World, which DCG owns.
Gemini Earn allowed folks to lend digital belongings to Genesis World as a part of a tri-party contract.
DCG responds
DCG mentioned in a statement on Twitter that the lawsuit was “one more publicity stunt from Cameron Winklevoss.” It mentioned that any suggestion of wrongdoing by DCG or its staff is “baseless, defamatory, and utterly false.”
The corporate mentioned that it is persevering with to work with collectors and {that a} mediation course of underway is “nearing a detailed.”
“We anticipate to carry the Genesis Chapter 11 case to a conclusion quickly,” DCG mentioned within the assertion.
Genesis chapter
Genesis World filed for chapter safety earlier this 12 months after taking a monetary hit following the collapses of the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and the FTX alternate final 12 months.
Winklevoss has accused Silbert earlier than of stalling efforts to reclaim funds for Gemini Earn customers. This system has been frozen since November.
The U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee sued each Gemini and Genesis earlier this 12 months and mentioned that the Earn program constituted an unregistered provide and sale of securities below U.S. regulation.
(Updates with remark from DCG and extra background.)
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