Xapo CEO Fires Back In Legal Spat With LifeLock

Nearly a year after data security firm LifeLock sued him, Wences Casares, the chief executive officer of bitcoin wallet firm Xapo, is firing back, Fortune reported Tuesday (July 28).

LifeLock bought Lemon, Casares’s digital wallet company, two years ago for $42.6 million. Casares then went on to found Xapo after leaving LifeLock, turning his attention to bitcoin. The suit by LifeLock, which first gained attention upon Fortune’s coverage recently, states that Xapo was actually the creation of “Lemon employees, in Lemon’s facilities … on Lemon’s dime.”

Filed in California’s Superior Court just last week, LifeLock’s suit wants the court to compel Casares and co-defendants (noted by Fortune to be former Lemon employees) to “disgorge the value of the Xapo product” tied to that alleged development .

Casare’s reply to the complaint, filed on July 24 with the court, accuses LifeLock of breaching contract and good faith and unjust enrichment, among other allegations.

Fortune reported that “in layperson’s terms” the former Lemon chief says that LifeLock had initially “blessed the idea” of technology that was to be called LifeLock Wallet, and then “dysfunctional management” led Casares to leave LifeLock. And a February 2014 letter from LifeLock President Hilary Schneider — in turn published in June of this year by Bitcoin Magazine — addressed to Casares stated that LifeLock knew about the bitcoin project and saw no violations of rights or covenants between Casares and Lemon.

Fortune reported that Casares wants a jury trial and is looking for monetary awards and punitive damages.

And, as has been reported, in a separate matter, LifeLock is finding itself the target of FTC actions. The FTC has levied allegations against LifeLock that the firm misled consumers about the strength of its identity protection services.

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