Kraken has been sued by a former employee for the third time this year. Nathan Runyon has accused the exchange of “fake company officer addresses, disappearing customer funds, stock option shenanigans, and sanctions violations”, as well as wrongful dismissal. Runyon’s filing comes six months after Jonathan Silverman and Robert Adler sued the company unpaid work and commission.
Runyon Lays into Kraken
Runyon claims he was fired for bringing up several issues within the operation, as well as his status as a disbaled veteran, and has based his case around wrongful dismissal. Among the allegations he makes are:
- That he was asked to fraudulently conduct an audit and do anything that would “check the box”
- That his superior asked to use Runyon’s home address on legal, licensing, and banking documents
- His superior offered to pay Runyon’s rent, but never did
- That Kraken knowingly dealt with countries on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, which is illegal
- Runyon was removed from a customer account reconciliation project when he raised a suggestion that Kraken was “millions of dollars short” of its stated assets
Runyon claims there were also “legally questionable” issues regarding stock vesting schedules for certain employees, but that he was shut down when he tried to raise these. He claims he was fired over a video call on the first day of taking some medical leave due to stress on August 1.
Kraken’s Legal Counsel in for Bumper 2020
The case will likely be dealt with around the summer of 2020, with Runyon seeking unspecified damages. This means that Kraken’s other cases against Silverman and Adler will likely be dealt with first, given they were filed at least six months ago. Silverman and Adler both claim that Kraken failed to pay them commission and stock options that they had verbally agreed with CEO Jesse Powell, while also claiming that the exchange continued to operate out of New York despite saying they would leave following the implementation of the New York BitLicense.
