A quondam employee of Us-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken initiated legal proceedings against the company in connection with a breach of contract and sanctions violations, among other issues.

Per a court document filed on November. 26, Nathan Peter Runyon — a marine wartime veteran and ex-employee of Kraken, where he served as a fiscal annotator under the exchange'south chief financial officer Kaiser Ng — brought the case to court accusing the company and Ng of an array of legal violations and falsifications.

A range of accusations

Specifically, Runyon defendant Kraken of unethical and illegal business tactics, defrauding employees over their stock options, sanctions violations, discrimination against him as a disabled military veteran and faking company officer addresses.

During his piece of work at Kraken starting from August 2022, Runyon purportedly came across multiple questionable business tactics, wherein the company allegedly earned revenue from countries on the U.South. Department of the Treasury's Part of Strange Assets Command Particularly Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.

Runyon claimed that Kraken'southward bank balances had been brusk of client deposits to the tune of millions of dollars. Kraken allegedly did not conduct performance evaluations, as well as changed stock options grant vesting schedules without whatsoever amendments.

Moreover, Ng allegedly asked Runyon if he could use Runyon's home accost for applications for banks and regulators. Runyon agreed, withal the company allegedly did not pay him hire for using his apartment.

Runyon notified Ng nigh his findings, but Ng allegedly ignored all of them and excluded Runyon from the project. The court filing features a number of Runyon's other allegations against Kraken.

Cleanest exchange in the industry?

According to a market place surveillance study by the Blockchain Transparency Institute released in late September, Kraken is among the cleanest cryptocurrency exchanges in the manufacture.

All the same, at the end of the 2d quarter of 2022, a Bloomberg written report called out irregularities involving certain Tether (USDT) trades on Kraken's exchange. John Griffin, a professor of finance at the Academy of Texas, told Bloomberg that the irregularities noticed are "suggestive of wash trading."

This technique is sometimes employed past traders, who act equally both seller and buyer in a given transaction, to give a fake impression of supply and need. This act in itself is illegal. Kraken discredited the content of the report in a blog post. "It'south not clear what impairment could come up from wash trading of a pegged nugget against its peg," Kraken wrote.