This article was updated to reflect that Rebase and Edmond Truong deny the claims put forward, in addition to recent comments shared by Krzysztof Gagacki.
Nonfungible token (NFT) project Rebase and its co-founder Edmond Truong has categorically denied accusations made by fellow co-founder and business partner, Krzysztof Gagacki in a recent lawsuit filing.
Gagacki claimed in an April 17 filing that Truong went “rogue” by stealing $2 million from a joint crypto wallet and ousted him from the firm.
In total, eight separate claims were made against Truong in a United States District Court in California, including breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, defamation and trademark infringement. Gagacki is now demanding a jury trial.
Gagacki told Cointelegraph that he has shared “a wealth of evidence” with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Attorney’s office to support his claims.
In a message to Cointelegraph, Rebase stressed that Gagacki’s claims are “not true and contain misinformation.”
The firm explained that its legal team is now working on finding the root cause of Gagacki’s claims, which they say have caused concern to their stakeholders:
“Our legal team is currently investigating the source of the false information and will take appropriate action to protect the interests of our company and our stakeholders.”
“We take our responsibility to maintain the trust and confidence of our clients, employees, and investors very seriously and will not tolerate any misrepresentation of our company or its operations,” the firm added.
While it is unclear exactly when the professional relationship between the two deteriorated, Gagacki alleged that Truong breached a partnership contract on Oct. 27, 2022, by misappropriating $2 million into a separate wallet owned and controlled by Truong without his consent.
Gagacki claims to own a 50% share of the funds and says Truong refuses to provide him with the private keys to the digital wallet. Truong, in turn, denied the claims when speaking to Cointelegraph.
Krzysztof Gagacki, co-creator of https://t.co/oBDvtTLDqk and the “Cy-B3lla” Bella Hadid NFT project, sued his co-founder today for allegedly stealing $2,000,000 and “going rogue.” pic.twitter.com/I3DTFR6ZhM
— Rob Freund (@RobertFreundLaw) April 18, 2023
In the filing, Gagacki claims Troung “ousted” him from the business by presenting himself to third parties as the “sole owner” and “decision maker” for Rebase.
He further alleges that Troung is stating Gagacki is no longer “employed” at the firm after things had “gotten a bit out of hand.” A LinkedIn account owned by Gagacki does not list an employment history at Rebase.
Truong also allegedly “intentionally interfered” with several prospective deals that Gagacki had been working on for the firm in addition to making several defamatory statements to the firm’s business contacts about Gagacki.
Gagacki claims these statements have had a “disastrous effect” on his reputation.
One of the deals involved American celebrity Bella Hadid, who featured in the firm’s Cy-B3lla NFT project but then refused further collaboration after it was made apparent to her that the two business partners clashed heads, the filing claimed.
Truong also allegedly seized a Twitter account relating to Hadid’s NFT collection, which Gagacki claims to have the trademark rights for with his other company, IOVO AG:
“[Truong] has also commandeered the @REBASEgg and @cybellaxyz Twitter accounts. Specifically, [Truong] has changed the password for these accounts and is actively denying Mr. Gagacki access.”
Another claim mentioned by Gagacki was Truong’s unauthorized pursuit to issue a Rebase token on the Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution Arbirtrum.
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If a token is issued, there may have serious ramifications for Rebase, the filing explained:
“If a Rebase app token is listed on any major cryptocurrency exchange, the market value of the tokens, which will be minted on the Arbitrum network and offered to the public, could reach many times over the Rebase app’s last round valuation of $150,000,000.”
According to the firm’s Twitter account, Rebase is set to integrate on Arbitrum on April 21:
Save the Date ⏲️
April 21st, 2023. Rebase is coming to Arbitrum! #RebaseonARB
The First AR Adventure and M2E App on $ARB pic.twitter.com/9QsMBsAlfe
— Rebase (@REBASEgg) April 11, 2023
The firm’s $150 million valuation has come on the back of venture capital funding from Animoca Capital, Anti Fund Investment Fund, LLC, DeFiance Capital and the now-bankrupt Three Arrows Capital.
Despite the court filing, Gagacki told Cointelegraph that he still deeply cares about the Rebase community and wishes “this action had not become necessary.”
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