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The co-founder of the nonfungible token (NFT) project Rebase is facing a lawsuit from his apparent business partner accusing him of going “rogue” by stealing $2 million from a joint crypto wallet and ousting an apparent co-founder out of the firm.
An April 17 filing in a United States District Court in California from Krzysztof Gagacki, who says they’re the co-founder of Rebase, made eight separate complaints against the firm’s other co-founder Edmond Truong.
Gagacki is demanding a jury trial for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, defamation and trademark infringement.
While it is unclear exactly when the professional relationship between the two deteriorated, Gagacki alleged 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.
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, he claims Troung “ousted” him from the business by presenting himself to third parties as the “sole owner” and “decision maker” for Rebase.
Gagacki 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.
Related: ‘Wave of litigation’ to hit NFT space as copyright issues abound
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.
Cointelegraph contacted Gagacki, Truong and Rebase but did not receive an immediate response.
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