Lawsuit Filed by Former Trading Desk Manager against Bitcoin Exchange Kraken; Demands Compensation of worth $900K
A former employee sues one of the biggest and oldest Bitcoin exchanges, Kraken acquired by Jesse Powell. Jonathan Silverman, the former Trading Desk Manager, has filed a lawsuit against Kraken for not paying him for the work he did.
Jonathan Silverman was hired by the firm in April 2017 and was responsible for managing the institutional sale and trade desk of Kraken in New York. The appointment was based on an agreement with Jesse Powell, which they had agreed upon. Founder of Kraken, a San Francisco based exchange firm, had offered him a package of $150,000 and verbally agreed to pay him around 10 percent of commission from the trading desk annual profit.
Jonathan further claims that more than $19 million was raised by the firm as profit for over three months in 2017 and he did not receive the commission nor offered any promised stock options.
At present, Jonathan Silverman had demanded the firm to pay $900,000 in compensation for the profit of $19 million which the firm earned when he was monitoring it. Jonathan was one of the two persons, who was serving at Kraken in New York trading office and he has not been paid out for his dues by the firm.
Kraken spokeswoman, Christina Vee said Jonathan “is both lying and in breach of his confidentiality agreement.”
Kraken has been accused by Silverman of deceiving the New York state. The lawsuit filed by Silverman mentions that public and government regulators are misinterpreted by Kraken informing them that they are not carried out their operations in New York. Actually, the OTC practice and OTC trading of Kraken have almost performed in New York.
In the cryptocurrency world, Powell is widely known for his honest views on what rules should be implemented to trade digital assets. The previous year, New York Attorney General has requested for information from Powell about his exchange, and he responded it by saying in part that numerous crypto trades are not worried about being protected from market manipulation, although scams are uncontrolled.
Kraken is one of the best cryptocurrency exchanges France which sets prices for CME Group Inc.’s Bitcoin next contract. Powell has mentioned that the exchange Kraken doesn’t have to follow the rules of New York because the company has not carried out its operation in the state for over the years.
Powell had tweeted in April 2018 saying: “We made the wise decision to get the hell out of New York three years ago.”
Earlier, through the blog post in 2015, Kraken revealed that it had stopped its New York services, mentioning the reason as states BitLicense difficult requirement, BitLicense a regulatory structure required by the Department of Financial Services for digital currency businesses.
The company quoted in the post named “Framework, New York,”
“Regrettably, the abominable BitLicense has awakened. It is a creature so foul, so cruel that not even Kraken possesses the courage or strength to face its nasty, big, pointy teeth.”
The lawsuit also claims that, when Silverman resigned from the job, he had reached an agreement with the company of receiving $907,000 as a settlement amount but yet he has not received it.
In an Email, the attorney representing Silverman, David Silver said:
“Just because some people in the cryptocurrency space don’t believe the rules apply to them doesn’t mean that’s the way things actually work.”
