FBI searches Jesse Powell’s home

In March 2023 the FBI conducted a search at the home of Kraken’s former chief executive Jesse Powell as part of a criminal investigation into allegations of hacking the nonprofit organization he founded. The New York Times reports.

According to sources, federal prosecutors opened the case against the entrepreneur as early as autumn 2022. Verge Center for the Arts representatives said Powell hacked the company’s computers, hindering access to email and other messages.

During the searches at the home of the former CEO of the trading platform the FBI seized electronic devices. Law enforcement authorities have not yet brought any charges.

Brandon Fox of Jenner & Block confirmed that Powell is under investigation. He said the investigation is ‘in no way related to his work in the cryptocurrency industry’.

He also believes that the exchange’s co-founder ‘did nothing wrong’, and Verge ‘provided a one-sided and incomplete report’.

In June, Powell filed a lawsuit against the Verge Center for the Arts, asserting the right to full access to the organization’s records, as he sits on its board of directors.

The entrepreneur became a co-founder of Verge in 2007, but the company removed him from the board in 2022 for violating its ‘guiding principles’.

Last autumn, Jesse Powell stepped down from the post of CEO of the exchange. He explained that his departure was driven by a desire to devote more time to product work and ‘protecting the interests of the industry’.

Earlier, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California ordered Kraken to provide information about its clients to the Internal Revenue Service.