Bitwise Industries’ former co-CEOs Jake Soberal and Irma Olguin Jr. have been accused of misleading and defrauding the Bitwise Board of Directors, according to a fresh round of filings in a Delaware Bankruptcy Court.
The documents allege that the two CEOs lied and schemed “to enrich themselves and avoid responsibility for their unethical, self-dealing actions for as long as possible.”
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Deep dive: The accusations include deliberately misrepresenting the company’s financial condition and engaging in financial transactions without the knowledge of the board, such as taking out a $5 million insurance policy before the company collapsed.
- The legal filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court claims that Soberal and Olguin actively misled employees, investors, lenders, partners, and the Board of Directors by concealing material information.
- Bitwise filed for bankruptcy on June 28 after collapsing a month earlier, leading to hundreds of employees losing their jobs.
- Proietti and Douglas have called for the right to file a lawsuit in Fresno County Superior Court against the former CEOs and an insurance company, which they claim will cover the company but not the CEOs.
- Additional claims against the former CEOs include the falsification of documents and paying themselves lavish salaries and benefits while misrepresenting the financial condition of the company.
More money, more problems: Proietti, who lent money to Bitwise, is owed $10 million from a previous loan based on false financial statements from Soberal.
- Douglass, the interim president of the company after the CEOs’ dismissal, claims to be an innocent victim of Soberal and Olguin’s schemes.
