Crypto Lawyer Roche Beset On 2 Fronts After Leaked Videos

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Ava Labs lawyer fights two-front battle

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Kyle Roche, a lawyer specializing in crypto issues, is fighting a two-front battle as client Ava Labs seeks to distance itself from the attorney and a Norwegian investor says he should be disbarred after leaked videos focused attention on his legal tactics.

Videos of Roche and Christen Ager-Hanssen apparently discussing an investment opportunity in a litigation-financing product during two meetings in London in January surfaced Monday on a website called Crypto Leaks, which alleged that the lawyer and Ava Labs were involved in a secret pact to undermine the latters blockchain rivals via US court actions.

Roche said the videoswhich appeared as a series of short clips in two different settings, many less than a minute longwere a set-up and that Ager-Hanssen was working with Dominic Williams, the CEO and founder of Dfinity, a crypto firm against which Roche has filed a class action for insider trading and securities fraud.

When I agreed to the meeting, Roche said in a Medium post, I was unaware that Mr. Ager Hanssen specializes in what he calls conflict management for eccentric billionaires like Mr. Williams where he uses illegal and underhanded means, including covert recordings and social engineering , to solve their legal issues.

One set of video clips took place in a conference room and the other in a restaurant, where Roche appeared to be inebriated.

Its clear that Kyle misrepresented himself and work in an effort to sell a venture capital investment, says a source familiar with the situation.

Following the release of the videos, Roche decided to withdraw from his firms class-action practice, including cases already brought against Tether, Bitfinex, the Tron Foundation and HDR Global trading, according to a spokesperson.

Ager-Hanssen confirmed that he was the unseen second party speaking in the videos and insisted hed never met Williams. He also identified Mauricio Andres Villavicencio de Aguilardescribed in an email as a London-based business consultant who introduced Ager-Hanssen to Rocheas the only other person in the room and thus only possible source of the videos.

There were three people in the meeting, it was Kyle, it was Mauricio, and it was me, says Ager-Hanssen. He must have been the one that was recording because he was sitting in that seat.

Villavicencio de Aguilar did not respond to emailed and telephone request for comment. Dfinitys Williams also did not reply to inquiries about Roches claim. Roche confirmed in his Medium post that the videos were genuine, though he said they were highly edited and spliced ​​out of context.

The Crypto Leaks narrative that accompanied the videos described Roche as pursuing aggressive tactics against companies that were rivals of Ava, but it does not seem to allege any specific illegal activity.

Ager-Hanssen urged the website to publish the full videos in Twitter postings on Wednesday. I believe everyone including me want to see it. I want to see Kyle Roche disbarred. He is a disgraced lawyer in breach of attorneyclient privilege among other things.

Ager-Hanssen told Forbes he was shocked by how closely Ava Labs worked with Roche. He said the video clips were not taken out of context, but he would not be more specific about the content of the conversations.

Meanwhile, Emin Gun Sirer, Avas CEO, distanced his company from Roche, who he said in a Medium post was only involved in specific legal actions on behalf of Ava and had no other corporate role. But Ager-Hanssen provided a pitchbook for Roches litigation-finance vehicle Ryval, the ostensible topic of the discussions, which Ava had previously said it was helping to develop. An email provided by Ager-Hanssen purportedly from Sam Wang, Avas former director of business development, described Roche as spearheading our litigation financing initiatives.

Ryvals business model is to tokenize interests in the outcome of litigation, allowing investors to finance cases and share in recovery, according to the pitchbook. On its Twitter page, Ryval says it is powered by Ava Labs Avalanche blockchain.

Roche and Sirer denied in their separate Medium posts they or their companies had done anything wrong, and both wrote the lawyers plaintiff representation was a source of disagreement between their firms.

In a subsequent Twitter post, Sirer disputed Roches apparent claim to own 1% of the Ava tokens; in one of the videos, the lawyer said he owned about a point of the token supply and the equity. Sirers Tweet said the total was not anywhere near 1%.

This is not the first time Ager-Hanssen has been linked to surreptitious recordings. In 2014, DN Magazine, a weekly supplement to the Norwegian business daily Dagens Nringsliv, said Ager-Hanssen always had a hidden microphone with him, both at lunches, dinners and business meetings.

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