In the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, a lawsuit has been filed by plaintiffs Brandon Smietana, Skycoin Global Foundation Limited, and Symbolic Analytics Inc. against defendants Bradford Stephens, Aaron Kunstman, Ryan Eagle, Joel Wayne Cuthriell, Morgen Peck, Catherine Byerly, American Publishers Inc., and unknown individuals and companies. The case ID is 2024L003661 and it was filed on April 4th, 2024.
The plaintiffs are represented by Barney & Karamanis LLP. They allege that defendant Stephens devised a plan to defraud Skycoin Global Foundation Limited in collaboration with other defendants. Skycoin is a consortium involved in software development and had a peak market capitalization of $5 billion USD in January 2018.
The plaintiffs further claim that an article authored by defendant Peck and published in The New Yorker Magazine titled 'Pumpers, Dumpers, and Shills: The Skycoin Saga' on August 28th, 2021 played a role in this scheme.
The plaintiffs are seeking judgment against the defendants for their alleged actions which have caused financial harm to their businesses.