Former Kraken Employee Sues Crypto Exchange, Demands $900,000

Jonathan SILVERMAN, a former Kraken employee, sues the crypto exchange, claiming that he was left unpaid for his work. The amount of compensation for the claim is more than $900,000. According to Bloomberg, Silverman managed the Kraken institutional sales and trading desk in New York. Supposedly, he made an agreement with CEO Jesse POWELL to be paid a fixed fee of $150,000. Supposedly, there was also an oral agreement according to which Powell agreed to pay him 10% of the desk’s annual profits.

Silverman stated that for three months of 2017, the desk’s profit amounted to more than $19 mln; however he did not receive 10% of commission or any other stock options. Christina VEE, a spokeswoman for Kraken, claims that the plaintiff is “both lying and in breach of his confidentiality agreement.”

In 2015, Kraken announced that it was suspending its work in New York State over the state’s controversial BitLicense, which was introduced by the Department of Financial Services. Thus, the suit of Silverman also casts doubt on the fact that the company ceased to operate in New York. The plaintiff claims that over-the-counter trading took place “almost exclusively in New York” and when he left Kraken, he reached an agreement with the company for a compensation of $907,000, which, according to the lawsuit, Kraken refused to pay out.

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