The FBI raided the home of crypto mogul Jesse Powell in March after the Kraken Exchange founder reportedly hacked into the nonprofit he founded and cyberstalked. . From the New York Times.
The criminal investigation focused on allegations that Powell, 42, interfered with the Verge Center for the Arts’ digital accounts and blocked access to communications. Powell founded the contemporary art space Verge in Sacramento, California in 2008.
Investigators raided Mr. Powell’s Los Angeles home and seized electronic equipment, but Mr. Powell has not been charged with any crime.
Powell was subsequently removed from Verge’s board in 2022. suspicious reports He claimed he made “hurtful” comments about race and gender in the Kraken office and tried to provoke a “culture war” among employees.
Verge later claimed that Mr. Powell blocked staff access to the company’s site and emails and accessed sensitive information.
A Kraken spokesperson told The Times that the Verge investigation was unrelated to the cryptocurrency exchange and that Kraken had no reason to believe prosecutors were investigating other potential issues.
Mr. Powell’s lawyer also told The Times that the investigation had nothing to do with Mr. Powell’s cryptocurrency activities and denied hacking and cyberstalking charges.
Kraken is the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world after Coinbase. Kraken has survived a federal crackdown on several competitors, the most notorious of which was indicted on fraud charges against founder Sam Bankman Freed in December 2022. It is the collapse of FTX.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. You may not publish, broadcast, rewrite or redistribute this material.
