How a Rising Crypto Lawyer Became a Target: The Kyle Roche Conspiracy Unraveled

The Meteoric Rise and Sudden Fall

By January 2022, 34-year-old Kyle Roche had already established himself as one of the most prominent litigators in cryptocurrency law. With his own firm bearing his name, Roche had filed lawsuits against numerous blockchain companies and secured a landmark $100 million judgment against someone claiming to be Bitcoin’s creator—a victory that earned his firm over $10 million in fees.

Opportunity seemed to knock when two businessmen from abroad approached him. They arranged a private flight to bring Roche from Miami to London, promising to discuss investment in Ryval, a litigation crowdfunding platform he was developing for the Avalanche ecosystem. The setup appeared legitimate: a meeting at an office, then dinner at Jean-Georges, one of London’s most prestigious restaurants.

But Roche awoke the next morning with no memory of the evening. Something felt deeply wrong—he suspected his drink had been compromised, though he had no proof.

Months passed. Then came August 2022, when everything unraveled. A website called Crypto Leaks published over twenty secretly recorded videos showing Roche’s conversations with the two businessmen. The footage was devastating: Roche boasted about his close ties to Ava Labs, the blockchain platform behind the AVAX token, claiming founder Emin Gun Sirer was “like a brother.” In other clips, he suggested he filed lawsuits specifically to harm Ava Labs’ competitors and to redirect regulatory attention elsewhere.

Within weeks, companies he had sued filed motions to disqualify his firm. By October, a federal judge removed Roche Freedman from cases against major crypto platforms. Roche was forced to resign from the law firm he had built.

From Working-Class Kid to Crypto Crusader

Kyle Roche’s journey to the top of crypto litigation began humbly. Raised in Buffalo as the eldest of four siblings, he felt responsible for his brothers and sisters. This drive to succeed carried him through Purdue University and into Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law.

In 2013, while still a law student, Roche became fascinated with Bitcoin. He tracked the price obsessively during classes, eventually profiting roughly $100,000 from early trading—enough to cover his tuition. A paper he co-authored with a professor on Bitcoin’s freedoms from government control garnered attention in The Wall Street Journal.

After law school, Roche joined Boies Schiller Flexner, where he took on a case that defined his early career: Kleiman v. Wright. This lawsuit pitted Ira Kleiman against Craig Wright, who claimed to be the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s creator. The case promised the ultimate prize—uncovering Bitcoin’s greatest mystery—and Roche threw himself into discovery with intensity.

In 2019, with his colleague Velvel Freedman and after securing a $7.5 million investment from a grateful client, Roche launched Roche Freedman. From a Brooklyn co-working space, the firm quickly made a name for itself. Noticing what he perceived as unregulated pump-and-dump schemes in crypto, Roche filed a barrage of lawsuits. On April 3, 2020 alone, his firm sued seven digital currency issuers. These weren’t defensive actions—they were an offensive strategy by a lawyer who saw himself as the new sheriff in the Wild West of crypto.

His most ambitious case targeted British entrepreneur Dominic Williams, accusing him and his Internet Computer project of defrauding investors. The ICP token launched as one of the market’s most valuable assets, then crashed 92%—Roche’s lawsuit claimed insider dumping was responsible. Williams denied the allegations.

The Relationship That Changed Everything

Around 2019, Roche met Cornell computer science professor Emin Gun Sirer at that Brooklyn co-working space. Sirer was incubating a blockchain project, and Roche agreed to provide legal services in exchange for equity and AVAX tokens. Such arrangements are common in tech—though they can create conflicts of interest, as seen when Roche’s own former mentor David Boies took equity stakes in Theranos.

When Roche made the deal in September 2019, AVAX tokens were worth less than three cents. By late 2020, after Avalanche’s launch, the price had soared past $100. At its peak, Roche’s stake was worth tens of millions. The value of his relationship with Ava Labs could not be overstated.

Yet the compensation agreement was supposed to remain confidential. When Roche Freedman fired partner Jason Cyrulnik in February 2021, Cyrulnik’s retaliatory lawsuit exposed Roche’s exact AVAX holdings to the world. The secret was out.

The London Trap: How It Was Set

According to emails reviewed by The New York Times, in December 2021 an acquaintance introduced Roche to someone claiming to be Villavicencio, an Argentine businessman interested in investing in Ryval. The contact seemed credible enough. Roche needed capital, and Ryval had attracted cryptocurrency media attention.

After a conference call, Roche accepted their invitation to London in January 2022. What followed was a masterclass in manipulation.

In Ager-Hanssen’s office, the Norwegian venture capitalist pressed his finger to Roche’s forehead in what Roche interpreted as an intimidation tactic. Ager-Hanssen claimed to possess detailed knowledge of Roche’s holdings—knowledge that came from Cyrulnik’s lawsuit filings. He pretended to believe Roche owned 1% of all AVAX tokens (then worth over $100 million). Using this leverage and flattery, Ager-Hanssen got Roche to elaborate extensively on his relationship with Ava Labs over the next hours, while Villavicencio, seated across the room, secretly recorded every word.

At Jean-Georges that evening, a drink awaited Roche at the table. He has no memory of what happened next, though videos show him heavily intoxicated, making crude gestures and boasting about his power to destroy companies through litigation. In one clip, when asked if Ava Labs had sued competitors, Roche answered that no—“they have me do it” through class-action format.

The implication was clear and damaging: he was weaponizing his law firm on behalf of Ava Labs.

After London, Roche never heard from Villavicencio again. He would later learn the trap had been sprung.

The Orchestration Revealed: Who Was Behind It?

In August 2022, when Roche first saw the Crypto Leaks videos on social media at a wedding, his life began to crumble. He immediately called Freedman and contacted clients. His biggest worry: those recordings of him claiming to file lawsuits against Ava Labs’ competitors and to divert regulatory scrutiny.

Roche insisted these were baseless boasts born from his humble background—an attempt to impress wealthy investors. He had begun filing lawsuits a month before meeting Sirer, he claimed. Sirer denied any involvement with the cases and stated he opposed some of them. Ava Labs’ general counsel had even published an article criticizing one of Roche Freedman’s lawsuits just six weeks before the videos dropped.

To contain the damage, Roche withdrew from his cryptocurrency cases, sold his AVAX holdings back to Ava Labs, and eventually resigned from the firm. Still, it was too late.

But who orchestrated this takedown? Roche believed he had discovered the answer.

After the videos surfaced, Ager-Hanssen called for revocation of Roche’s law license and published a Twitter report about him. He also contacted former partner Cyrulnik, offering to support his claims. For Roche, the puppeteer was obvious: it was Ager-Hanssen.

When confronted, Ager-Hanssen denied orchestrating the scheme. “This was not an action controlled by me; it was conducted by others,” he said. He claimed Villavicencio filmed without his knowledge and that he was genuinely interested in Ryval. He also alleged he knew the true mastermind but refused to name them.

Villavicencio has since disappeared. No phone calls are returned. Ager-Hanssen suggested the name might not even be real—“a nonexistent person.”

Yet court documents tell a different story. The timing was too convenient: Williams tweeted about “coming for” his critics on May 12, 2022. That same day, the domain cryptoleaks.info was registered. By June 9, the Crypto Leaks website launched.

The first Crypto Leaks reports defended Williams’ interests and attacked media coverage of the ICP collapse. Only later did Roche’s videos appear as the website’s most damaging content.

After the videos dropped, Williams and his Dfinity Foundation filed disqualification motions against Roche’s firm, citing concerns about judicial integrity. In response, Roche Freedman’s legal filings directly accused Williams of masterminding Crypto Leaks. They suggested the Jean-Georges videos showed signs of deepfake manipulation and alleged Williams spread rumors about threats to Roche’s life.

Williams denied involvement. “We appreciate the reporting by Crypto Leaks and believe their articles speak for themselves,” he said through a spokesperson—a curious turn of phrase for someone who denies connection.

Dr. Wright and gambling magnate Calvin Ayre, both targets of Roche’s litigation, were pleased when the videos emerged. Ager-Hanssen later became CEO of nChain, a company funded by Ayre. Yet both denied involvement in the London scheme.

The Aftermath and Unresolved Questions

Fear gripped Roche after the videos surfaced. A colleague’s friend reported hearing that Roche’s life was in danger. He and his fiancée fled to a short-term rental in Brooklyn, then eventually moved to a rental apartment under an assumed name in Miami.

A judge ultimately sided with Williams, disqualifying Roche’s former firm from the pump-and-dump case. The reasoning: the firm’s long friendship with Roche and joint control of a cryptocurrency wallet containing over a million AVAX tokens created conflicts of interest, and the firm harbored animosity toward Williams.

The case now faces collapse unless the lead plaintiff finds new representation by August.

Yet Roche has begun rebuilding. In April 2024, he won a $12.5 million judgment for six former partners of a major financial services firm—a victory that opened the door to broader class-action litigation. He continues representing investors in disputes with various crypto platforms.

But the conspiracy against Kyle Roche—whoever ultimately orchestrated it—has left deep scars. The videos of his boasts, his apparent intoxication, his conflicted loyalties, continue to haunt him. Whether they were truly the unedited confessions they appear to be, or whether they were captured under compromised circumstances, remains contested.

What is certain: the lawyer who positioned himself as crypto’s sheriff discovered he had made powerful enemies in an industry where the line between justice and vengeance can blur in a London restaurant, over a single drink.