UPDATED 23:18 EDT / NOVEMBER 15 2017

EMERGING TECH

Class action lawsuit filed against Tezos alleges fraud and breaches of securities law

Blockchain startup Tezos, which raised $233 million in an initial coin offering in July, is facing more difficulties as a class action lawsuit was filed against it and its founders, alleging fraud and breaches of U.S. securities law.

It’s the second lawsuit filed against it three weeks. The new lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Florida, alleges Tezos founders Arthur and Kathleen Breitman, Dynamic Ledger Solutions, the company behind the initial coin offering, and the Tezos Foundation, a Swiss-registered body established to promote the technology, sold unregistered securities in violation of federal and state securities laws.

Further, the lawsuit claims that the defendants fraudulently and deceptively marketing the sale of “Tezzies,” the token offered in the ICO, as equity investments when they were instead filed as charitable contributions, allowing the defendants to pocket “tens of millions of dollars” for themselves. The previous lawsuit, filed Oct. 25, made similar claims, alleging that the initial coin offering violated securities laws and defrauded participants.

Both come as the company itself continues to implode from infighting among its founders and supporters that was first revealed Oct. 19. That battle involves a dispute between founders Arthur and Kathleen Breitman and Johann Gevers, president of the Tezos Foundation.

The Breitmans are demanding that Gevers be removed from his role because of alleged “self-dealing, self-promotion and conflicts of interest” and that they instead should be given a position on the foundation board, while Gevers claims that the Breitman’s are part on “an illegal coup” on his position at the foundation and that they have been trying to control the foundation as if it were their own private entity by bypassing the foundation’s legal structure and interfering with management and operations.

Publicly addressing the dispute Oct. 25 at the Money 20/20 financial technology conference in Las Vegas, the Breitmans went out of their way to reassure attendees, which included some Tezos investors, that the company’s $232 million digital coin offering will overcome the latest difficulties. Kathleen Breitman said that “there’s not any critical jeopardy to the project,” and that while the dispute “stinks,” they believe it will “blow over.”

With two lawsuits now filed and potentially more on their way, it’s highly unlikely that the drama involving the company will be blowing over anytime soon.

Image: Tezos

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