Kyle Roche, the lawyer at the center of the lawsuit over the secret deal between the company and Ava Labs, responded in a post on Medium on Monday. According to Ava Labs CEO Emin Gunn Sirer, Roche denied there was any secret agreement between the parties.
Roche said the copies published on the Cryptoleaks website were made at the behest of ICP Token creator Dominic Williams. Roche Friedman filed a class action lawsuit against Williams and the Definity Foundation last October. Roche said the tapes were heavily edited and denied the veracity of his statements. As Roche said:
“Descriptions in the video […] They were obtained by deception, using leading questions, to deliberately inform and then exploit me.”
The released videos show Roche in two different settings. A series of clips were recorded in a restaurant, where Roche can be seen with a glass of wine. Another set of clips seems to have been recorded in the office.
Sirr commented on the Cryptoleaks allegations on his less-used Medium blog on Monday. Sirer reiterated his denial that Ava Labs had a secret deal with the Roche law firm to manipulate the US legal system to “harm” its competitors. Sirer wrote:
“Roche is not on our executive team, and we don’t look to him for advice other than a few small matters that he represents us on. […] He dealt with only a few matters of minor importance to us in the field of his abilities.
Cryptolex, an anonymous website, has not backed down from its claim that it conducts investigations based on information obtained from fraudsters. In addition to Roche’s transcripts, Cryptolex submitted evidence of the secret agreement in a complaint filed in Florida District Court against Roche, his partners and a former associate at his law firm.
Emin Gün Sirer, maybe this legal file will help you refresh your memory
According to page 18, Roche Friedman earned +4M #AVAX From Ava Labs
In proportion #AVAX Delivery:
February 21 ~ 5%
Today ~1.75%Charge: https://t.co/nfTh5mt8a4@shameful https://t.co/WaQwpZdq96
— CryptoLeaks (@CryptoLeaksInfo) August 29, 2022
The complaint, posted on the Cryptoleaks website, states, “In exchange for legal services, Ava Labs agreed to pay a specified amount of Tokens to Roche Friedman LLP over a thirty-six-month period beginning on September 30, 2019.