Joseph Lubin Sued

More than 20 former ConsenSys employees sued on founder Joseph Lubin for allegedly failing to honor a stock agreement for the infrastructure company.

According to the lawsuit, in 2014, Lubin “lured smart and motivated” people to work for ConsenSys by claiming that the firm would be “the future of cryptocurrency” and “cryptoGoogle.” They agreed to a lower salary and a share in the company.

Lubin allocated 30% of the holding company’s shares to employees. The plaintiffs own approximately 9% of this division.

In 2015, the defendant allegedly promised “not to dilute” the employees’ share in the company, but violated the agreement. As a result, the company’s co-founder not only broke his promise and legal obligations, but also “became rich,” leaving his employees “with nothing,” they claim.

The plaintiffs, who owned shares in Switzerland’s ConsenSys AG (formerly ConsenSys Mesh), said the securities became “worthless” when Lubin transferred rights to MetaMask and other assets to a new U.S.-based unit in 2020.

JPMorgan is also named as a defendant due to its “key role” in executing the transaction, which resulted in it becoming a new shareholder in the organization.

The ex-employees are seeking damages on six separate grounds in amounts to be determined at trial.

In conversation with Bloomberg a ConsenSys spokesman called the claims “superficial.” He noted that the plaintiffs are now trying their luck in the US legal arena after having “failed to achieve anything with their claims” in a Swiss court for two years.

Despite such statements, the Swiss Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the publication explained.

In March 2022, ConsenSys announced a Series D funding round. At that time, the crypto wallet developer raised $450 million at a valuation of $7 billion.

In July 2023, the company said it had sufficient funds to operate amid rumors of negotiations regarding a potential capital injection.