Former BitMEX CEO Alexander Hoeptner has sued the cryptocurrency derivatives platform for $3.4 million for breach of contract and wrongful termination, a court filing shows.<\/p>\n
Hoeptner joined the Seychelles-registered exchange in January 2021 at a time when top officers at HDR Global Trading Limited, the owner and operator of BitMEX, were embroiled in a lawsuit that accused the founders of facilitating unregistered trading.<\/p>\n
It was previously reported that Hoeptner left the company in October 2022, without further details. Hoeptner now claims that he received a letter of termination citing misuse of funds and failure to perform duties, among other things.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch termination is wholly wrongful and without basis,\u201d the court filing said.<\/p>\n
According to Hoeptner, BitMEX owes him a total of $3.4 million, including $2.4 million for his second year bonus and smaller amounts for remaining wages, relocation expenses and housing, the court filing shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the direction of the founders and the board, I put my personal and family lives on hold in order to be on the ground managing operations in Singapore and Hong Kong,\u201d Hoeptner told CoinDesk. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed that it has gotten to the point that legal proceedings are necessary, but I\u2019ve been left with no choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoeptner relocated several times during his time as the CEO of BitMEX, filings show, and split his time between Hong Kong, Germany and Singapore.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were no objections and\/or concerns raised as to the Claimant\u2019s relocation and\/or the costs that was to be incurred by the HDR Group in respect of the same,\u201d the filing says.<\/p>\n
But sometime in July 2022 to August 2022, he was informed by the company that there was a possibility he wouldn\u2019t receive his second year bonus or any reimbursement for his relocation, citing \u201cextensive cost-cutting and restructuring program which involved numerous layoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
His relocation expenditures at that point had amounted to $230,000, according to the filing. A few weeks later, he received a termination letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had made tremendous progress – hitting every milestone we set out – which made my wrongful termination even harder to understand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The crypto exchange recently cut its workforce by 30% as it tries to pivot back to its initial focus on derivatives trading. Earlier this year, BitMEX\u2019s former CEO Arthur Hayes was sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to charges of willfully failing to implement an anti-money laundering (AML) program at the exchange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was previously reported that Hoeptner left the company in October 2022. Former BitMEX CEO…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tin-thi-truong","category-nhan-dinh"],"yoast_head":"\n