If Tron, led by founder Justin Sun, has been good at anything in the past year, it’s inviting controversy and dramatic speculation. A lawsuit has come to light now, revealing the inner workings of the company, and how little Sun appears to care about following the law.
CoinDesk has obtained the 70 page document outlining a lawsuit by former TRON employees Richard Hall and Lukasz Juraszek. In it, they detail a hostile work environment, a general neglect of U.S. regulations, and call on U.S. authorities to punish the company. Hall, a product director, was with the TRON foundation for seven months, while Juraszek was a software engineer with roughly the same amount of time served.
The lawsuit centers around the conduct of Sun and Head of Engineering Cong Li. Hall claims Sun berated him to fasttrack BitTorent releases, the file-sharing service Tron partnered with in 2018. He also claims he flagged copyright-infringing content and child pornography on the platform, but Sun and Li seemed unbothered by it. “Cong Li summarily dismissed these concerns, stated that he had discussed these concerns with Justin Sun, and that no legal review would be done,” the lawsuit said.
Hall also claims Li threatened him over an upcoming vacation. When Hall refused to cancel an already approved trip, Li threatened to fire him, and eventually demoted him when he returned. When Hall began documenting Li’s conduct via email, Li allegedly told Hall “If you go tighter with me, I will go tighter with you,” “things will end badly for you,” and “I cannot protect you.”
Juraszek also noted physical assault he perceived to happen in TRON foundation offices. He claims Sun has slapped Li, and that he believes Li had hit another manager. That manager was later filed, with anything he might have documented in email wiped from the system.
They feel that the concerns they were raising were the cause of their own dismissals, calling it retaliation and discrimination. To further light the flame under authorities to take action, they claim that Mainland Chinese employees were brought in to replace them, which they believe will cause even less adherence to U.S. laws and regulations.
If TRON should lose this lawsuit, the duo are asking for as much as $15 million in damages. That would be another huge blow for the company, which lost a trademark application battle with Disney over the company’s name. Disney opposed their application for a trademark on the grounds that the Tron movie franchise, which has been around for 38 years. Sun called Disney’s win “mis-informed FUD”
New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.
