- The VC firms claim Egorov misappropriated trade secrets
- He is accused of selling their CRV tokens, which were worth millions
- They insist they never got the equity in Swiss Stake promised
A US court is reviewing a high-profile legal dispute involving 1kx, Framework Ventures, and ParaFi – three major crypto venture capital funds. They are suing Michael Egorov, the founder of Curve Finance, a popular decentralized exchange, Coingape reported. They claim he misappropriated trade secrets and implicate him in deceptive practices.
The funds claim financial damages
The VC firms claim that Egorov’s misappropriation of trade secrets incurred financial damages. However, Egorov’s legal team maintains the accusations are a tool to counter ongoing lawsuits in Switzerland that go back to 2020.
Egorov’s lawyers stated:
To justify their blatant forum shopping, plaintiffs concocted a new and compelling story painting Egorov as an evil villain who duped three naïve VC firms into giving up ‘trade secrets’ and $1 million in invested funds.
False statements
The three VC firms initially funded Curve, having seen potential in the new and innovative technology and premises, on which the Ethereum-based platform was built. However, they now accuse the founder of making false statements about how Swiss Stake GmbH, Curve’s license holder, would use their assets.
Egorov did not utilize any VC assets for employment purposes, as agreed, because he didn’t want to relinquish the company. He is also accused of selling CRV tokens worth millions, which the VCs claim they owned.
Firms didn’t get the equity and CRV promised
Further, the firms insist they never got the equity in Swiss Stake they were promised and that they invested almost $1 million, which was never returned. In addition, they were entitled to CRV tokens worth tens of millions, which they didn’t get either.
Curve was designed to enable users to trade Bitcoin and stablecoins more efficiently. Its founder, who is a physicist and scientist by profession, ranked 60th on Cointelegraph’s list of the top people in crypto and blockchain in 2022.
