Gemini sues Digital Currency Group, Barry Silbert over alleged fraud

Crypto exchange Gemini is suing Digital Currency Group and its founder Barry Silbert, with Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss accusing Silbert of being "the architect and mastermind of the DCG and Genesis fraud against creditors."

The move came after Winklevoss gave Silbert an ultimatum last week to immediately pay $640 million he says is owed to Gemini's Earn clients or face a lawsuit.

"This lawsuit seeks to recover from Defendants the damages and losses that Gemini has incurred as a direct result of DCG’s and Silbert’s false, misleading, and incomplete representations and omissions to Gemini, and Defendants’ role in encouraging and facilitating Genesis’s fraud against Gemini," according to the complaint. 

Winklevoss has argued that Gemini Earn users are stuck in limbo with over $1.2 billion of assets stuck in Genesis Global, which DCG owns.

Gemini Earn allowed people to lend digital assets to Genesis Global as part of a tri-party contract.

DCG responds

DCG said in a statement on Twitter that the lawsuit was "yet another publicity stunt from Cameron Winklevoss." It said that any suggestion of wrongdoing by DCG or its employees is "baseless, defamatory, and completely false."

The company said that it's continuing to work with creditors and that a mediation process underway is "nearing a close."

"We expect to bring the Genesis Chapter 11 case to a conclusion soon," DCG said in the statement. 

Genesis bankruptcy

Genesis Global filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year after taking a financial hit following the collapses of the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and the FTX exchange last year.

Winklevoss has accused Silbert before of stalling efforts to reclaim funds for Gemini Earn users. The program has been frozen since November.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued both Gemini and Genesis earlier this year and said that the Earn program constituted an unregistered offer and sale of securities under U.S. law.

(Updates with comment from DCG and additional background.)