Kyle Roche, an attorney, previously withdrew from serving as counsel in a number of class actions involving cryptocurrencies, including the Tether and Bitfinex Crypto Asset Litigation.
After two legal firms asked the court to remove his law firm Roche Freedman as interim co-lead from the Tether and Bitfinex Crypto Asset Litigation, the fallout from the leaked Kyle Roche videos has intensified.
In a class-action complaint filed in 2019 by Roche Freedman, it is alleged that Tether and Bitfinex manipulated the cryptocurrency market by issuing unbacked Tether (USDT).
On Monday, Roche Freeman’s removal from the court was requested by Kirby McInerney LLP (Kirby) and Radice Law Firm, P.C. (Radice), who are also representing three plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The firms contend in the petition that Roche Freedman should not serve as lead counsel because he would “prejudice the rights of the putative class” and “distract the court from the investors’ claims.”
“To avoid a sideshow about the adequacy of counsel or the motives and use of litigation and discovery, a new leadership structure is necessary.”
The row started as a result of a CryptoLeaks exposé, which gained notoriety for its claims that Kyle and Ava Labs had a covert pact to file litigation against their rivals.
According to court documents published on August 31, Kyle Roche resigned as counsel in a number of class actions involving cryptocurrencies, including the Bitfinex and Tether Crypto Asset Litigation.
The motion to have Freedman removed was based on the “recordings of a single lawyer who has since sworn such utterances were untrue or misconstrued,” according to Roche Freedman’s response, which was submitted on Tuesday.
“The Firm also took appropriate steps to avoid any appearance of impropriety.”
He was “screened from this lawsuit,” according to Freedman, and he won’t “get any percentage of the proceeds from this litigation.”
Because “the five named Plaintiffs who actually employed the Firm and stand to lose the most if deprived of their counsel of choice,” it was contended, that should be the end of the case.
Tether, one of the defendants in the case, has already asked that Roche’s legal team be completely removed from the case and certified as having returned or destroyed all papers supplied by the defendants and not sharing them with any third parties.
