A former Kraken employee has filed a lawsuit against the US-based cryptocurrency exchange for not receiving agreed upon compensation, Bloomberg reported.
Jonathan Silverman, who managed Kraken’s institutional sales and trading desk in New York, has alleged that the Exchange has failed to pay him the agreed compensation amounting to more than $900,000, according to the April 7 report.
Hired in 2017, Silverman, as seen in the court filing, was offered a $150,000 salary by Kraken’s CEO Jesse Powell along with an oral commitment of an additional ten percent commission of the trading desk’s annual profit.
Silverman claims that the trading desk generated $19 million in profits in three months in 2017. However, the exchange did not pay the employee his share of the commission.
The crypto exchange, however, has denied all allegations made against it. A Kraken spokesperson told Bloomberg: “[Silverman] is both lying and in breach of his confidentiality agreement.”
Still Operating in New York?
Apart from the breach of contract, the ex-Kraken employee also alleged that the exchange is violating regulatory guidelines by continuing its operations in New York.
“[The exchange had been] misrepresenting to the public and government regulators that it was not operating in New York; when in reality, Kraken’s OTC practice, and OTC trading (including logging into the Kraken exchange and negotiating wire transfers) occurred almost exclusively in New York,” the court filing states.
Kraken, in 2015, shut down its services in the state of New York amid the introduction of the controversial Bitlicense. Powell later slammed the mandatory license calling it a “foul” and “cruel” creature.
“Just because some people in the cryptocurrency space don’t believe the rules apply to them doesn’t mean that’s the way things actually work,” David Silver, an attorney of the ex-Kraken employee, told the publication.
Silverman's suit is not the first against Kraken, as another similar lawsuit was filed against the crypto exchange earlier this year by another employee. In that case, the employee sued the exchange for not paying him an agreed upon sum of $907,631 in Settlement money.
