(Reuters) – Several U.S. agencies are investigating allegations of fraud leveled by billionaire Cameron Winklevoss against Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its CEO Barry Silbert, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors in Brooklyn, FBI agents, and U.S. SEC staff sat in on an interview in recent months with Cameron, who co-founded crypto exchange Gemini with his twin Tyler, the report said.
The Winklevoss twins and crypto baron Silbert have been feuding since Genesis, a unit of DCG, froze withdrawals last November in a blow to its largest creditor, Gemini.
Silbert’s Genesis filed for bankruptcy in January after making some risky bets and still owes creditors, including Gemini, over $3 billion, according to court filings.
The co-founders of Gemini in July filed a suit accusing Silbert and Genesis of misleading investors, and claims it used accounting tricks to try to cover up a hole in the parent company’s balance sheet.
Gemini in July sued DCG and its CEO, the day after DCG missed the exchange’s deadline for agreeing to a restructuring deal for the venture capital firm’s troubled unit.
DCG had denied the allegations and in August urged a U.S. judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
According to the Bloomberg report, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York inquired specifically about Silbert’s conduct.
The Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment, while DCG, Gemini and the other U.S. agencies did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
