In a request for court order filed by Elliot Greenfield of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP on August 31, the law firm representing Tether and Bitfinex requested that Roche`s law firm be completely removed from the case and confirmed that they had returned or destroyed all documents issued by the defendants And they are not shared with any third parties, including AvaLabs.
The request comes shortly after Roche filed notice of a motion to withdraw from the Tether class action, as the lingering fallout from the recent CryptoLeaks revelations alleging that U.S. attorneys entered into a secret agreement with AvaLabs to [harm" AvaLabs competitors to receive AVAX tokens and AvaLabs shares.
Greenfield said Roche's statement on the CryptoLeaks website raised "serious concerns" that Kyle Roche "could misuse the discovery process" and "misuse information he obtained through litigation."
[He says he`s AvaLab`s `crypto expert` because he`s `sued half the companies in the space` and he `knows where this market is headed` because he `knows what`s going on inside every crypto company.`"
Greenfield said those concerns are highly relevant to the case, emphasizing that Roche Friedman LLP "has processed numerous document requests looking for information that has no apparent connection to the claims and defenses in this lawsuit."
The attorney also emphasized the need to suppress the documents "because they contain not only confidential, competitively sensitive information about the defendants' business, but also information that, if released, would threaten the privacy and security of the defendants as well as their clients."
While Kyle Roche has filed a motion to have himself and others removed from the case, Greenfield said Roche's withdrawal "does little to address the serious difficulties associated with potential misuse findings."
"Even though he is no longer an attorney of record, he will still have access to discovery materials, will retain the ability to direct the actions of other attorneys in his firm, and will profit from all potential recourse in this lawsuit."
Greenfield added that "the removal will not harm the plaintiffs" because they will continue to be represented by "two other large and experienced firms," including Selendy Gay Elsberg PLLC and Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP.
A class action lawsuit launched in 2019 accuses Tether and Bitfinex of manipulating the crypto market by issuing unsecured Tether (USDT) "in order to demonstrate to the market that there is a tremendous organic demand for crypto products."
In the past few days, Roche has also dropped out of lawsuits against Binance, Solana, Tron, BitMEX, Nexo, and Dfinity.
