Ripple Labs, the digital asset fee service supplier tied to XRP, one of many 5 largest cryptocurrencies, was blackmailed on the peak of crypto mania three years in the past, CoinDesk has discovered.
Paperwork obtained by CoinDesk via a Freedom of Data Act request present an unidentified particular person emailed Ripple on Oct. 19, 2017, demanding 5 million XRP – then price $1.1 million – in trade for withholding movies it claimed portrayed the corporate in a destructive gentle.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) San Francisco and Canberra, Australia, places of work investigated the extortion try from Oct. 23, 2017, to April 20, 2018, in accordance with the paperwork, which don’t describe the content material within the movies or whether or not Ripple paid the 5 million XRP.
The case was closed after there was bother monitoring the extortionist down with simply an electronic mail tackle, Web service supplier data and an IP tackle, a pc or a smartphone’s on-line fingerprint, the paperwork say.
Requested concerning the movies and fee request by CoinDesk, Ripple didn’t reply by press time and the FBI declined to remark.
The privately held firm, co-founded in 2012 by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb, the competing Stellar digital forex’s founder, is eyeing an initial public offering and was the topic of intense market hypothesis two years in the past when the costs of XRP and bitcoin (BTC) shot up in tandem to historic highs.
Ripple is funded by Andreesen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Lightspeed Enterprise Companions, Pantera Capital, Accenture, CME Group and IDG Capital plus banks which have layered apps on prime of its fee protocol together with Santander, SBI Holdings and Commonplace Chartered.
Correction (Oct. 23, 20:30 UTC): Adjustments identify of Ripple co-founder to Chris Larsen
