Two former directors of nChain UK, the London blockchain company associated with a computer scientist who falsely claimed to be bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, are bringing legal proceedings against their former employer.
Group finance officer Andrew Moody and general counsel David Brookes claim that they were dismissed in retaliation for blowing the whistle on an alleged attempt by an investor to acquire the company’s intellectual property without the knowledge of nChain’s directors.
The firm, together with three company officials, dispute the claims, which were made yesterday at a London employment tribunal. They argue that the directors had not made protected disclosures and were properly dismissed for gross misconduct.
The company was closely associated with Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist, who falsely claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of bitcoin. A high court judge found that Wright fabricated documents and repeatedly lied to justify his claims in a 2024 court case.
Brookes and Moody claimed in a written opening note that they made protected disclosures to their group CEO after learning of the existence of documents that had been created by others “behind the backs” of nChain’s directors which were not in the interests of the company.
The two directors claim that the documents, which consisted of three agreements with an investment company, contained a mechanism that could have stripped nChain of its entire portfolio of intellectual property and were an “existential threat” to the nChain group.
They claim they were led to believe that the documents were drawn up at the insistence of an investor in nChain to “hedge their bets” if litigation brought against Wright to overturn his claims of being Sakatoshi Nakamoto were successful.
Biggest fake ever
At a mock trial in September 2023, an attempt to “cajole” Wright to produce bitcoin keys to unequivocally demonstrate he was Nakamoto failed. Instead, he produced a memory stick purporting to prove his identity that turned out to be an “obvious forgery”.
The incident prompted the group CEO, Christen Ager-Hanssen, to send a WhatsApp message describing Wright as “the biggest fake ever”, the two directors claim.
Ager-Hanssen called a meeting of group executives on 26 September 2023, where he presented a report, setting out the disclosures previously made by Brooks and Moody about the alleged conspiracy to obtain nChain’s intellectual property for less than its value.
Their plan to gather further evidence by instructing the IT department to obtain emails of everyone involved in creating the “July documents” floundered, when the head of IT, who had been instructed to keep the matter confidential, alerted the company’s chair, who vetoed the plan.
Whistleblowing report
Ager-Hanssen emailed his report, dubbed the Fairway brief, under the headline, Whistleblowing report from the management of HEH holding AG/nCHain Group, along with minutes of the meeting to company executives the following day.
Brookes and Moody claim that an independent report subsequently commissioned to look into the allegations in the Fairway brief were a “whitewash”.
They also allege that one of the companies hired to investigate the claims had previously been engaged to produce “evidence” to support Wright’s claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto. One of the ideas considered was to publish a book that could be used as evidence in court, it was claimed.
Following a disciplinary procedure, the directors were suspended and later received letters informing them that they had lost their jobs because of “gross misconduct”.
They claim there is no contemporary evidence to show why they had been suspended and that the real reason for action was their involvement in the protected disclosures in the Fairway brief.
Brookes and Moody accused of ‘piggybacking’
Along with three other respondents in the case, nChain UK Limited contests the claims. They said in an opening note that if there were any whistleblowing disclosures, they were made by Ager-Hanssen, not the two directors. Brookes and Moody were seeking to “piggyback” on protected disclosures made by somebody else in a way that was legally flawed.
According to the respondents, the July documents had been examined by well-qualified lawyers in the UK, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, who found legitimate and lawful commercial agreements. They found no breaches of duty and concluded that none of the allegations in the Fairway brief were legally founded.
On any sensible reading of the July agreements, Wright’s loss in court “afforded no right of bail out/asset stripping”, and the claimants cannot credibly suggest that it did, they said in their opening note.
The respondents argue that the directors’ dismissals were not triggered by their disclosures, but a series of “extraordinary events” and improper conduct that took place in the office on 27 September 2023.
They claim that CCTV footage shows Ager-Hanssen engaged in allegedly “unhinged” conduct when he angrily asked one of the respondents to leave the office, used multiple expletives and claimed there was an illegal conspiracy to steal intellectual property from the company.
He is quoted as saying: “You don’t understand corporate governance, you don’t work here … Get out of this office, otherwise, I’m getting security to do it. I am a board member, and you are not. You don’t even work here.”
Moody and Brookes’ conduct on 27 September was also described “extraordinary and alarming”.
The respondents said in their opening note that numerous employees that were not involved in the Fairway brief were also suspended from work following the events of 27 September.
Ager-Hanssen previously brought an employment tribunal which was struck out on 18 October 2024, on the basis that it had not actively been pursued, according to the respondents written submissions. In separate legal proceedings, between nChain Holding, Ager-Hanssen was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for contempt of court.
The case, which has backing from WhistleblowersUK, continues.
