{"id":56783,"date":"2023-09-04T12:14:12","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T16:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/markets\/crypto\/ceo-accuses-co-founder-of-130-million-theft\/"},"modified":"2023-09-04T12:14:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T16:14:15","slug":"ceo-accuses-co-founder-of-130-million-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=56783","title":{"rendered":"CEO Accuses Co-Founder of $130 Million Theft"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Gala Games CEO Eric Schiermeyer has filed a lawsuit against the company’s co-founder, Wright Thurston, alleging the theft of 8.6 billion GALA tokens worth $130 million in early 2021.<\/p>\n

In addition to alleging theft, the lawsuit claims that Thurston has a history of founding companies that end up insolvent, bankrupt, or in litigation.<\/p>\n

Schiermeyer\u2019s lawsuit was filed on August 31, and reported on by The Block on Sunday.<\/p>\n

In response to Schiermeyer\u2019s filing, Thurston has filed his own lawsuit, accusing Schiermeyer of taking control of Gala Games for personal use, including for the financing of a private jet.<\/p>\n

<\/oembed><\/figure>\n

A so-called GameFi Web3 startup, Gala Games was co-founded by Thurston and Schiermeyer in 2019, with each holding a 50% ownership stake.<\/p>\n

The company recently launched Champions Arena, a mobile turn-based RPG game, and also operates in blockchain-based music, film, and digital collectibles.<\/p>\n

Token theft held company hostage<\/h2>\n

Schiermeyer alleges that Thurston’s theft of GALA tokens in effect held Gala Games hostage, since going public with the theft could potentially lead to a collapse of the entire GALA ecosystem.<\/p>\n

To mitigate the situation, Gala Games issued Gala v2 tokens in May 2023.<\/p>\n

However, Schiermeyer claims the tokens were designed to make Thurston’s GALA tokens obsolete while keeping the rest of the ecosystem intact.<\/p>\n

Thurston’s lawsuit, in return, accuses Schiermeyer of mismanagement and self-dealing in a way that damaged Gala Games’ reputation and assets to the tune of \u201chundreds of millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, Thurston has faced legal issues before, including a lawsuit from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) related to Green United LLC, which allegedly misled investors into a fraudulent \u201cgreen\u201d crypto project.<\/p>\n

Likely as a result of the lawsuits, the price of GALA has fallen by some 18% in the past 7 days days and 31% in the past 30 days, and some analysts are already asking if the GALA price could go to zero.<\/p>\n

Ranked 85 by market capitalization, the token is the worst performer among the top 100 tokens by market cap on a 7-day basis, per CoinGecko\u2019s ranking.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n