Gala Games Founders Lock Horns Over $130M Stolen Funds
- Gala Games’ founders filed a lawsuit against one another in a Utah District Court on August 31.
- The two executives have accused each other of corporate waste and stealing $130 million from their wallets.
- Wright Turston accused Eric Schiermeyer of operating the firm without input from Thurston, a director at the firm.
- Thurston has been accused of stealing $130M in a “complex web of obfuscatory transactions.”
The co-founders of Gala Games, a Web3 and blockchain gaming platform, have engaged in a battle over two separate lawsuits, one alleging the theft of close to $130 million worth of GALA tokens and the other alleging corporate waste. The gaming token has crashed almost 9% over the past few hours after the co-founders engaged in a struggle in court.
It is important to note that the co-founders of Gala Games, Wright Thurston and Eric Schiermeyer, filed a lawsuit against one another on August 31 in a Utah District Court. Interestingly, the gaming firm’s CEO, Schiermeyer, alleged that in early 2021, Thurston and his investment firm, True North United Investments, were responsible for stealing close to $130 million worth of a token tied to the gaming firm’s ecosystem.
Schiermeyer claims that Thurston moved the tokens to a wallet that was under the firm’s control, and later, the tokens were transferred to 43 other wallets by Thurston. When the CEO confronted Thurston regarding the movements, he stated that he was holding the tokens in his wallet for safety purposes.
The lawsuit pointed out that the tokens were moved from the wallets and exchanged or sold in a “complex web of obfuscatory transactions” between September 2022 and May 2023. Interestingly, the lawsuit added that Thurston first did not acknowledge the presence of the tokens, while later adding that the GALA tokens belonged to him.
On the other hand, Thurston is also accused of having stolen licenses to run Gala ecosystem nodes, selling the licenses, and keeping the proceeds. On the very same day, Thurston’s True North filed a lawsuit against Schiermeyer, adding that he caused Gala to “sell off and waste millions of dollars in company assets” and lent millions of the firm’s funds to himself for personal purchases.
Interestingly, Schiermeyer is accused of operating the gaming platform without input from Thurston, who is a director at the firm, while giving incomplete or incorrect information and corporate records to Thurston “despite repeated requests.”
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
