Ripple CEO comments on Crypto Leaks, denies funding law firm to target others

Kyle Roche allegedly approached Ripple’s CEO with an idea to invest in a law firm that would target competitor firms with similar lawsuits that Ripple was facing in the U.S.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse took to Twitter to deny recent explosive claims made by Crypto Leaks, an online publication focusing on corruption and fraud-related news in the crypto ecosystem.

Crypto Leaks published a report on Friday containing a series of short videos from an unknown source. The report claimed that Ava Labs formed a secret pact with the law firm to use the American legal system “gangster style” to “attack and harm crypto organizations.”

The same report also alleged that Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse funded a law firm to target competitor firms. The report claimed Roche, who founded Roche Freedman, was earlier working with Boies Schiller Flexner, a firm that was representing Ripple in its lawsuit against the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC).

Roche allegedly approached Garlinghouse to invest in a law firm that would target competitor crypto firms with lawsuits quite similar to what Ripple was facing at the time. And Kyle claimed that Garlinhouse agreed to his proposal.

“For whatever reasons Brad Garlinghouse invested in Kyle Roche and supported him on his current path, it certainly didn’t save him from the SEC.”

Ripple CEO took to Twitter to deny any such allegations and claimed that he has “never met or spoken to (much less invested in) Kyle Roche. “

Can’t comment on the validity of the slew of allegations in here, but I can unequivocally say that I have never met or spoken to (much less invested in) Kyle Roche. https://t.co/s5Qu91AV2Z pic.twitter.com/DjLZ0eSdbe

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) August 29, 2022

Crypto Leaks’ recent slew of allegations against Ava Labs and Brad Garlinhouse created quite a buzz in the crypto industry as both the CEOs of the firm have denied any allegiance to Kyle Roche and his law firm.

Related: Ripple CTO lashes back at Vitalik Buterin for his dig at XRP

Ripple and XRP community were quick to come to the defense of the company’s CEO, where one user pointed toward the flaw in the argument put forward by Crypto Leaks. The user pointed out that the claims were based on Kyle’s comments, which were later presented as facts without proof.

“According to Kyle” pic.twitter.com/avIqcZRnNz

— Kevin Smith (@KJS_Brainstorm) August 29, 2022

While Garlinghouse denied investing in a law firm that targets competitors, Ripple’s co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen was infamously involved in the campaign to change the code of Bitcoin.