Ex-Employee Sues Startup Behind Zcash for $2M Over Unpaid Stock

Published on by Coindesk | Published on

A former employee, Simon Liu, is suing the former Zerocoin Electric Coin Company for $2 million over unpaid shares, breach of contact, and damages, according to court documents.

Zerocoin is the organization behind the popular cryptocurrency Zcash.

At that time, Liu entered into a contract with the company to receive "Incentive stock options to purchase" 12,000 units of company stock.

"Zerocoin did not have authorization to issue common stock to employees in 2016, and that defendants were aware they did not have such authorization." He also alleges that his superiors knowingly mislead him when saying he would receive a "Founders Reward" tied to the number of outstanding company shares then counted as 1,345,486 units.

On December 31, 2018 the company provided a status update that admitted Zerocoin had not created a stock option plan for its employees and that no formal option grants had been issued.

One month later, the company published another internal statement outlining plans to "Issue new shares in the Zerocoin Electric Coin Company, diluting everyone's percentage of ownership interest."

Before the lawsuit was filed, company representatives denied Liu's request to examine their books and records.

Zerocoin is a limited liability company organized under the laws of the State of Delaware.

It changed its name in February from Zerocoin to the Electric Coin Company to avoid confusion between Zcash and the nonprofit Zcash Foundation.

The case is unrelated to an ongoing $900,000 lawsuit involving a former employee at crypto exchange Kraken suing over unpaid wages.

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