Report: Tezos Founders Ask Foundation to Help Pay Legal Bills in ICO Suits

The husband-and-wife founders of Tezos are reportedly turning to the controversial blockchain project's nonprofit foundation to help pay the couple's legal bills as they fight a growing number of lawsuits.

As previously reported, the lawsuits stem from Tezos' $232 million initial coin offering (ICO), which was completed earlier this year. Yet months after the token sale was finished, details of an internal power struggle between founders Kathleen and Arthur Breitman, and the head of the Switzerland-based Tezos Foundation, Johann Gevers, were made public.

And while the Breitmans initially sought to assuage fears over the future of the project, allegations of fraud and misrepresentation have been advanced in what are now three ongoing proposed class-action lawsuits. As the National Law Review reported earlier this week, the latest complaint was filed on Nov. 26 in California.

Those growing legal problems have led the Breitmans to seek out financial support from the Tezos Foundation, according to Reuters.

Citing anonymous sources, the news service reports that Breitmans want help in covering the expenses related to the lawsuits. Gevers, the Swiss-based foundation's head, told the wire service he could not comment on the report.

The Breitmans have been being accused of violating federal securities laws and defrauding their ICO's contributors, since they have yet to launch their proposed smart contracts network, and allegedly selling unregistered securities, in the form of their unreleased native "tezzies" token, to contributors.

Brian Klein, an attorney for the Breitmans, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

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