SushiSwap's Grey Rebuts Accusations Made 'Without Any Substantial Evidence'

Jared Grey has said his piece. And yes, he addressed the horse.

In a detailed response published on Thursday, SushiSwap’s new head chef rejected the extraordinary allegations leveled against him this week and defended his record and reputation.

No Evidence

“I am so disheartened that there have been so many false accusations on Twitter that have recently gone viral without any substantial evidence to back them up,” Grey wrote. “I feel that I’ve missed the window of opportunity to introduce myself to the Sushi community properly.”

On Oct. 11, YannickCrypto, a community member of ALQO, a project Grey previously led as CEO, accused Grey of introducing a “Web Wallet” for ALQO that was used to steal 70% of the total token supply of ALQO users. The wallet was called Liberio.

Stolen Funds

On Twitter, Grey said “my business partner stole funds from our community”. According to a blog post published by ALQO in 2019, Grey appears to be alluding to ALQO’s lead developer, Kevin Collmer. The blog post says Collmer’s actions “contributed directly to the loss of user funds on Liberio, which were the result of unauthorized access.”

Grey said he is not to blame for the incident. “The ‘theft’ that Yannick mentions came from an incident where ALQO tokens were stolen from an internal web wallet by an insider in ALQO who was on the technical team and used tech vulnerabilities to exploit the wallet and steal funds,” Grey said in his rebuttal. “I was not involved in any capacity in the theft and participated in the investigation of the theft and the refunding process for community members.”

Collmer, who appears to not have a presence on social media, could not be reached for comment.

Grey also rejected Yannick’s allegations he charged a 1 BTC fee to crypto founders in exchange for listing their tokens on the Bitfineon exchange; Yannick said around 20 projects did not receive listings despite paying the fee.

Without Authorization

Grey said Bitfineon used the fees to cover the development costs associated with integrating new assets. He added that Bitfineon onboarded multiple new crypto assets under his supervision.

Yannick also said Grey used copyrighted media without authorization to promote MultiPlex PC, a computer hardware firm he directed, in 2012.

Grey said that MultiPlex PC, a computer hardware e-commerce business he ran a decade ago, contracted an SEO firm that engaged in copyright infringement to promote the business without his consent. Grey said he contacted the firm that suffered copyright infringement in an attempt to remedy the situation.

‘Thanks for addressing the dodgy issues. I hope things improve for you and Sushi does very well in the future.’

Community member PhatAbbot.

The new head of SushiSwap, a DEX with $499M in TVL, also responded to the bizarre claim that he engaged in intimate relations with a horse.

“Jared Grey is a common name — there is a male porn star with my same name,” Grey wrote. “He asked me to buy my Twitter handle and reached out to me a few years ago. The video of the horse fingering, if it exists (I’ve never seen it before), is probably a video produced by Jared Grey, the porn star, and not myself.”

Transparency

Grey’s rebuttal received mixed reactions on social media, with some respondents praising Grey for seeking to alleviate concerns relating to his past.

“Well handled,” said Twitter user MushMassey. “This level of transparency is needed.”

“Thanks for addressing the dodgy issues,” posted community member PhatAbbot. “I hope things improve for you and Sushi does very well in the future.”

Week-long Vote

But others expressed reservations about Grey’s judgment in selecting partners. “Why do you think you compulsively delegate to scammers, and what have you learned from your extensive experience such that we can trust you won’t delegate to scammers again?” questioned BlockEnthusiast, a self-described DeFi and DAO enthusiast.

The Sushi community elected Grey as its new head chef on Oct. 3 following a week-long vote that took months to culminate. The candidate received almost 84% of votes cast after finding support from large SUSHI whales, with five wallets accounting for 95% of the votes supporting Grey.