Crypto Litigator Kyle Roche Removed from His Firm’s Class-Action Dept.

Anonymous website Crypto Leaks recently published video footage of Kyle Roche – a known crypto litigator – talking about what a huge stake he has in a company known as Ava Labs, which dabbles in blockchain and distributed ledger technology.

Kyle Roche Is Feeling the Heat

In the video, he also appears to talk about filing suit against competitors of the company. He also refers to class-action plaintiffs and jurors as “idiots.” This has set up an improper conduct investigation surrounding Roche, who recently claimed that the videos taken of him were done without his knowledge or consent, and thus they are illegal and cannot be used against him in a court of law. Roche also says that the videos were edited in a way that makes him look bad, and that he was apparently drunk while making the comments.

Roche Freeman – the law firm that Kyle works with – is not taking any chances and has removed him from its class-action department, claiming that the video suggests he possesses bias and thus he cannot be trusted to handle future litigation appropriately. Thus far, he will not be involved in ongoing cases against the stable currency Tether or the crypto exchange Bitfinex.

While in most cases those against Roche would likely be happy with such a decision, there are critics out there that claim it’s not enough. Andres Rivero of competing law firm Rivero Mestre served as the lead lawyer for Craig Wright, a computer scientist that has long claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the man who allegedly invented bitcoin. Not long ago, Roche Freeman brought a case against Wright, and Rivero said the following in a recent statement:

[Roche’s] admissions of wrongdoing demonstrate the firm’s unlawful ‘business plan’ and its ongoing efforts to subvert the fair administration of justice, which heap scorn and disrepute upon the legal profession and every court (including this one) in which the firm has appeared.

Roche Freeman also issued its own comments regarding the situation. The firm stated:

Wright’s suggestion that this action was brought for an improper purpose defies logic. To state the obvious, this action was brought because plaintiffs — who have never met anyone from and have no affiliation with Ava Labs — believed in good faith that Wright converted their valuable bitcoin and blockchain-related intellectual property… Wright’s motion is frivolous. While we understand he has a personal animus against the firm, we’d have hoped that wouldn’t be reflected in his filings. Unfortunately, we were wrong.

Is Craig Wright Who He Claims to Be?

Rivero took issue with the company’s defense, saying:

Their response doesn’t even start to address their confessed misconduct.

In a recent suit, the estate of Wright was sought after by the family of a man who is alleged to have invented bitcoin alongside Wright and designed the many technical aspects of the currency and its respective blockchain network.

Tags: craig wright, Kyle Roche, Roche Freeman