This Is Why the FBI Raided Kraken’s Jesse Powell’s Home (Report)
Powell’s lawyer said that the company did not give a “full picture” of the case, which would have shown that Powell “did nothing wrong.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is said to have searched Jesse Powell’s home earlier this year. Powell is the founder and former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. A non-profit group had accused him of hacking and cyberstalking a few months before the probe.
In recent years, the FBI has gone after other people with ties to crypto. Ryan Salame, the former CEO of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, is one example.
After the Probe, No Official Charges
The New York Times reported that US law enforcement searched Powell’s home in Los Angeles in March of this year after an arts center called Verge Center for the Arts said he had cyberstalked it and stopped workers from getting to confidential data.
Sources who did not want to be named said that the FBI took electronic devices from Kraken’s former boss to learn more about the case.
After the raid, officials have not charged Powell with any crimes, and Powell’s team has denied hacking or cyberstalking.
Even though Kraken’s father used to be on the board of directors, he was kicked off because he said some controversial things. Powell has sued the arts center before, saying that he was fired without a good reason.
His lawyer, Brandon Fox, said that his client’s participation in the case has nothing to do with “his conduct in the cryptocurrency arena.”
“We have reason to believe Verge provided a one-sided account that did not provide the government with the full picture, which would have shown that he did nothing wrong,” he added.
The next FBI raid
In April, the “Bureau” searched the Potomac, Maryland, home of Ryan Salame. This person used to be the CEO of FTX’s division in the Bahamas. The sources didn’t say what the real reason for the raid was. But some people thought it might have something to do with Salame and the huge crash of the once-leading cryptocurrency market FTX.
Last year, when he told Bahamian authorities that the platform might have stolen billions of dollars from its users and given them to Alameda Research, the American was a key figure in the investigation into the platform.
Salame also gave a lot of money to politicians. He gave more than $23 million to Republicans running for office. Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, who lost his crypto fortune, gave about $40 million to political candidates, mostly Democrats, in the 2022 election cycle.
