Tether wants law firm Roche Freedman “terminated” as counsel from the Bitfinex and Tether class action lawsuit

USDT-issuer Tether wants law firm Roche Freedman “terminated” as counsel from the Bitfinex and Tether class action lawsuit following a lawsuit from Kyle Roche to be removed as counsel in the case.

Bitfinex and Tether’s legal representatives also want the law firm to return or destroy everything provided by the accused law firm and ensure that they are not distributed.

On August 31, Elliot Greenfield of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, the law firm representing Tether and Bitfinex in a court order demanded that the Roche law firm be completely removed from the case and that all documents provided by the firm be returned or destroyed. third parties, including Ava Labs.

The request comes shortly after Roche submitted a Notice of Motion to Withdraw from the Tether class action lawsuit amid ongoing fallout from a recent CryptoLeaks expose, which alleged the U.S. lawyer engaged in secret deals to “harm” Ava Labs competitors in exchange for AVAX tokens and Ava Labs equity.

Greenfield said Roche’s comments published on the CryptoLeaks website raised a “serious concern” that Kyle Roche “may be abusing the discovery process” and “misusing information” he learned through litigation.

Greenfield said the issue is particularly relevant to this case, noting that Roche Friedman LLP “has served a number of document requests seeking information that has no apparent link to the claims and defenses in this lawsuit.”

The lawyer has also stressed the need for the documents to be repressed, “which contain not only confidential and competitive information about the defendants’ business but also information whose disclosure could endanger the confidentiality and security of the defendants and their clients.” .”

While Kyle Roach filed a motion to recuse himself and others from the lawsuit, Greenfield said Roach’s withdrawal “does little if anything to address the serious issues regarding the potential misuse of discovery.”

Greenfield added: “removal would not prejudice Plaintiffs,” because they are constantly referring to “two other large and experienced firms” including Selendy Gay Elsberg PLLC and Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP.

The class action lawsuit that began in 2019 alleged that Tether and Bitfinex manipulated the crypto market by issuing unbacked Tether (USDT) “in an effort to signal to the market that there was enormous, organic demand for crypto commodities.” 

Over the last few days, Roche has also withdrawn from the Binance, Solana, Tron, BitMEX, Nexo, and Dfinity lawsuits.