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The US Justice Department has closed its probe into Kraken’s laminitis Jesse Powell, and returned dozens of laptops and mobile phones agents seized during an FBI raid 2 years ago, Fortune reported connected July 22.
The national case did not revolve astir Kraken’s operations, but alternatively a bitter governance combat astatine the Verge Center for the Arts, a Sacramento nonprofit Powell founded successful 2008.
News of the raid archetypal surfaced successful The New York Times, which reported that agents were probing allegations Powell had “hacked and cyber-stalked” the nonprofit.
Court filings since past picture thing acold little cinematic: a quality implicit who controlled Slack and Google Workspace accounts aft Powell was pushed disconnected Verge’s board.
Powell insisted helium ne'er chopped disconnected anyone’s entree and argues alternatively that Verge insiders softly created a caller domain and parallel enactment accounts earlier moving to oust him.
He is pursuing a civilian suit successful authorities court, accusing erstwhile colleagues of defamation and wrongful removal.
Justice Department drops the case
Documents Powell filed this week see a alleged declination missive from prosecutors, confirming the Justice Department has walked distant from the case.
His lawyer said helium requested the missive to antagonistic the reputational harm caused by the raid and to reassure banks and regulators that Kraken’s enactment is not nether national scrutiny.
Powell called the hunt “devastating” personally and professionally, maintaining that find successful his suit has already shown the accusations to beryllium baseless.
The government’s exit does not resoluteness lingering questions. Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI would remark connected however the Times obtained details of the investigation.
Powell’s latest filings besides impeach 2 Verge committee members, 1 of them lawyer Phil Cunningham, of withholding cardinal documents during discovery.
Verge, meanwhile, continues to run arsenic a fixture of Sacramento’s arts scene, supported implicit the years by much than $1 cardinal successful donations and extended tech assistance from Powell.
Notably, Powell declined to accidental whether the returned devices held Bitcoin oregon different integer assets. When agents seized the hardware, Bitcoin (BTC) traded adjacent $23,000. As of property time, BTC trades adjacent $119,000.
The station FBI drops probe into Kraken laminitis Jesse Powell, returns seized devices appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
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