ConsenSys, the Ethereum developer that oversees the cryptocurrency wallet, MetaMask, which recently raised $200 million at a $3.2 billion valuation, is facing allegations that its founder illegally shifted valuable assets to a new company.
A group of thirty-five former employees representing more than 50% of all known ConsenSys shareholders filed a request for a special audit to investigate the company and its founder, Joseph Lubin.
The claim is that in August 2020, intellectual property and subsidiaries were illegally transferred from ConsenSys AG (CAG) into a new entity, ConsenSys Software Incorporated (CSI). This was in exchange for 10% ownership of CSI and an offset of a $39 million loan by founder Joseph Lubin.
The former employees claim that the transaction, internally code-named Project North Star, resulted in companies such as JPMorgan Chase acquiring an influential stake in MetaMask and Infura, which are two of the most widely used infrastructure tools in Ethereum. MetaMask alone has more than 20 million monthly users.
This comes on the heels of a completely different lawsuit against ConsenSys with a lot of salacious back and forth allegations.