Feds search crypto exec’s home amidst stalking, hacking allegations: NYT

The FBI searched cryptocurrency magnate Jesse Powell’s home in March following allegations that the Kraken exchange founder hacked and cyber-stalked a nonprofit he had also founded, according to reports from The New York Times.

The criminal investigation focused on claims that Powell, 42, interfered in the digital accounts of and blocked the Verge Center for the Arts’s access to communications. Powell founded Verge, a contemporary arts space in Sacramento, Calif., in 2008.

Agents searched Powell’s Los Angeles home and seized his electronics, but Powell has not been accused of any crimes.

Powell was removed from the Verge board of directors in 2022, shortly after reports alleged that he attempted to ignite a “culture war” among employees with “hurtful” comments around race and gender in Kraken offices.

Verge alleged that Powell then blocked its staff’s access to its site and emails, and accessed confidential information.

A spokeswoman for Kraken told The Times that the Verge investigation had nothing to do with the cryptocurrency exchange, and that Kraken had no reason to believe prosecutors were investigating other potential issues.

Powell’s lawyer also told The Times that the investigation is not related to Powell’s cryptocurrency activity and denied the allegations of hacking and cyber-stalking.

Kraken is the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange after Coinbase. Kraken has survived despite federal investigators’ crackdowns on several of its competitors, the most infamous of which being the collapse of FTX following fraud charges against its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, in December 2022.