Nexo, a crypto trading platform, is in a legal dispute with its co-founder Georgi Shulev over $12 million in missing assets. According to a court document recently shared with journalists, the two parties are disputing the whereabouts of a Ledger hardware wallet containing some of the company’s crypto holdings. The legal dispute has been ongoing since 2022.
The wallet contained over $12 million in crypto, which is now missing, the court document reads.
The dispute began in September 2019 when Shulev was terminated in his role as Nexo’s managing partner by the board. Following this, Shulev tried to get compensation for his Nexo shares that were denied to him. Access to Nexo’s crypto could have become a bargaining chip in those negotiations.
The parties had come to a settlement that Shulev should return assets belonging to Nexo in his custody and receive $1 million in exchange. However, Nexo did not proceed with the payment, demanding Shulev return other crypto he owed it first.
The dispute is full of confusing and contradictory claims. According to Nexo, the company set up a Ledger wallet for its funds, which Shulev controlled and took with him as he left Nexo in 2019. Shulev maintains that he left the device in Nexo’s office and had no control over the funds.
In April 2022, Shulev told the court that after the Nexo office was searched, he was questioned by the Bulgarian National Investigation Service as a former employee. He said he volunteered to provide a PIN code for Nexo’s Ledger wallet to the investigators and on March 31, seven of the nine cryptocurrencies stored on the device were transferred to newly created wallets.
The parties are now waiting for a trial.