USDT-issuer Tether wants law firm Roche Friedman to be “eliminated” from Bitfinex and Tether class action lawsuit following a proposal to remove Kyle Roche as attorney in the case.
In an August 31 court order request by Elliot Greenfield of Debivois & Plimpton LLP, the law firm representing Tether and Bitfinex requested that Roche’s law firm be removed entirely from the case and certified that they All documents issued by the defendant have been returned or destroyed. and have not shared them with any third party, including Ava Labs.
Roche made the request shortly after Roche submitted notice of motion to withdraw from a Tether class action lawsuit amid ongoing repercussions from a recent crypto leak that alleged that US attorneys had made a claim for the AVAX token. In return Ava Labs entered into a secret agreement to “harm” competitors. Ava Labs Equity.
Greenfield said Roche’s statements published on the CryptoLeaks website raised a “serious concern” that Kyle Roche is “misusing the discovery process” and “misusing information” that he learns through litigation.
“He Says He’s Ava Lab’s ‘Crypto Expert’ Because He ‘Sue'[s] Half the companies in space’ and ‘Learn[s] where this market is going’ because he ‘saw the insides of every single crypto company.'”
Greenfield said the concerns are highly relevant to the case, highlighting that Roche Friedman LLP “has fulfilled a number of document requests that have no clear link to the claims and defenses in this lawsuit.”
The attorney also stresses the need to suppress the documents, “because they not only contain confidential, competitively sensitive information about the defendant’s businesses, but also information that, if disclosed, could result in the defendant’s and The privacy and security of their customers would be at risk.”
While Kyle Roche has filed motions to remove himself from the case and others, Greenfield said Roche’s withdrawal “does nothing to address the serious issues regarding potential misuse of the search.”
“Even though he is no longer an attorney of record, he will still have access to search materials, retain the ability to direct the conduct of other attorneys at his firm, and benefit from any potential recovery in this lawsuit.”
Greenfield stated that “the removal would not harm the plaintiffs”, as they would continue to be represented by “two other large and experienced firms”, including Celandy Gay Ellsberg PLLC and Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecki LLP.
A class action lawsuit launched in 2019 alleged that Tether and Bitfinex manipulated the crypto market by issuing “in an attempt to signal to the market that there was a huge, organic demand for crypto commodities”.
In the past few days, Roche has also withdrawn from lawsuits from Binance, Solana, Tron, BitMEX, Nexo and Dfinity.
