Crypto Casino Stake.com Sued for $400 Million by Former Partner
A former partner of Stake.com who claims he was excluded from the wildly successful company is suing the Australian creators of the world’s largest bitcoin casino in the US for $400 million in damages.
However, Stake.com creators Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, who just bought Melbourne’s most expensive home, have called the lawsuit “completely frivolous” and “provably false”.
Stake.com is a $1 billion operation
Cryptocurrency casino Stake.com, believed to be an overseas operation, was actually formed in Melbourne in 2017 by Craven and Tehrani, according to a late 2021 investigation by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.
With Canadian pop artist Drake as its major brand ambassador, Stake.com, the main sponsor of English Premier League soccer team Everton, has grown into a company with a potential market value of up to $1 billion.
Craven recently made headlines in Australia when he paid $80 million for a Toorak home, smashing the city’s previous record. Another Toorak property was bought for $38 million earlier this year by entities linked to Craven.
Christopher Freeman, currently based in Florida, has filed a civil lawsuit in the Southern District of New York, claiming he was misled into not participating in the creation of Stake.com and is seeking $US400 million ($580 million). in punishment. damages as well as payment for his initial investment in a company that served as a precursor to Stake.com.
The suit also names Stake.com as a defendant. Lawyers for the company called the allegations “frivolous” and “provably false” in a statement. If the lawsuit was not rejected by the court, it stated that it will defend the claim.
The claim by Freeman cites Craven’s real estate acquisitions as evidence of Stake.com’s enormous success. The casino claims to have processed $100 billion dollars in bets across the casino and sports betting companies, but it runs very much like a typical casino and only accepts cryptocurrencies as payment.
Freeman claims in his lawsuit that he went to elementary and high school in Connecticut with Tehrani and was friends with the Stake.com founder since they were young children.
A breakdown of the event
In the beginning, according to Freeman, he owned 20% of Primedice while Tehrani and Craven owned 40% each, a situation that reflected their initial investment in the company.
Within nine months of founding Primedice, Freeman claims his stake was lowered to 14% to compensate other key members of the development team.
Freeman claims that despite the trio’s agreement that Primedice would only give shares to people who have invested money in the company, this share transfer still took place.
As the value of cryptocurrencies increased, Freeman claims that in 2016 he discussed the concept of a cryptocurrency casino with his business partners, but Tehrani and Craven allegedly turned him down due to potential regulatory concerns.
Freeman claims he was dissuaded from joining Tehrani and Craven’s alleged new business, Stake.com, that same year after being informed that he could only participate if he moved to Australia and that the new business would only deal in fiat -currencies such as the US dollar. or the euro.
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According to court documents, “Committed to and comfortable with the concepts of online gambling, Freeman believed a fiat money casino was the wrong direction to go (online gambling facilitated by fiat is widespread, big business)”.
“He reasoned it was highly competitive and presented personal risks he was unwilling to accept, and he did not want to be forced to move to Australia to run a fiat-based gambling business.”
Freeman claims that Tehrani and Craven started their bitcoin casino Stake.com despite their previous comments that it would be too expensive to run one and worry about regulation.
He further claims that after questioning Tehrani and Craven, the two gave him assurances before taking away his access to the system.
“Later, when Stake.com was launched as a virtual casino that included an online competitive dice game and many other features Freeman had suggested and helped design, Tehrani and Craven affirmatively tried to assuage Freeman’s dismay at having been misled by confirming that he still retained his stake in Primedice.”
“Ultimately, Freeman’s access to the Primedice account was blocked and never returned.”
Stake.com said in a statement:
“The complaint filed by Chris Freeman contains allegations that are internally inconsistent, intentionally misleading and demonstrably false.” The company described the claim as a “desperate attempt to spread false information”, adding that Freeman had no claim to the money he said he was owed.
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