A number of lawsuits filed by Kyle Roche have been withdrawn after Ava Labs controversy

The CEO of Ava Labs denied there was anything unusual about the company’s relationship with Roche, despite a video that was leaked.

• The attorney Kyle Roche has withdrawn from cases against Bitfinex and Tether
• The CEO of Ava Labs and Kyle have both denied taking part in a secret agreement

Several class action lawsuits filed by Kyle Roche, the lawyer recently exposed for allegedly instigating a secret agreement to harm crypto players, are canceled.

According to a court document filed on Wednesday in the Southern District of New York, Roche has withdrawn from cases brought against several companies including Bitfinex, Tether, DigFinex, and Global Trade Solutions. The various lawsuits allege that the crypto companies manipulated the digital asset market.

No withdrawal request has been filed against Solana, Dfinity, Celsius, Binance.US, or Block.one. Nevertheless, a document stated he no longer practices class actions at the law firm.

In September 2019, Kyle and Ava Labs, the core developer of the Avalanche blockchain, secretly struck a deal, according to new website CryptoLeaks. In the deal, Kyle was tasked with suing Ava Labs’ competitors and distracting regulators, according to the writers of the site.

Avalabs definitely involved in Kyle Roche/ Avalabs litigation initiative. See attached email from Sam Wang, Director of Business Development for Avalabs. pic.twitter.com/cx3ecGNGYK

— Christen Ager-Hanssen (@agerhanssen) August 29, 2022

According to CryptoLeaks, Roche described himself as Ava Labs’ in-house crypto expert and admitted to maintaining the Securities and Exchange Commission’s attention with other targets.

He attributed his crypto expertise to suing “half the companies” in this industry.

Ava Labs’ relationship with Roche

Sirer distanced his company from Roche following the publication of the leaked videos. Sirer said Roche made up his claims in the videos in order to impress a potential business partner. He also stated that Roche had been a lawyer at a firm they retained as a startup – one of a dozen to which they pay for tax advice, corporate and regulatory advice, and human resources consulting.

There is clearly an ongoing and personal relationship between Roche and Ava Labs executives. Roche stated in one video that his equity stake in Ava Labs was “a third” of that of its COO Kevin Sekniqi, and that he was temporarily living with him in Miami.

“Gün and Kevin, I trust like brothers,” stated Roche.

He reported in a statement that a meeting shown in the video was with Christen Ager-Hanssen, a Norwegian venture capitalist who intended to “deceive and entrap” him because of a business relationship with Dominic Williams from Dfinity.

I had absolutely nothing todo with Cryptoleaks or the filming of Kyle Roche (KR) when he bragged about how he is playing the whole industry and colluded with Ava Labs to destroy competitors. I’m shocked about KR´s behaviour and hope KR´s licence will be revoked by the Bar pic.twitter.com/M0iVFYBWIX

— Christen Ager-Hanssen (@agerhanssen) August 30, 2022

The hidden individual in the videos – Ager-Hanssen – denied working for Williams and called on CryptoLeaks to release the full video’s of Roche.

According to Ager-Hanssen, Roche is credited with spearheading Ava Labs’ litigation financing initiatives in an email dated Dec. 28, 2021, which appears to be from Ava Labs’ former Business Development Director Sam Wang.