Pop artist and Stake.com ambassador Drake in a public appearance. His favorite gambling site has to respond to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit from a former business partner. (Image: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nChristopher Freeman, who currently resides in Florida, filed a civil lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. He alleges Craven and Tehrani duped him when creating Stake.com. He wants $400 million in punitive actions and damages, and also wants them to return an investment he made in a company that served as a precursor to Stake.com.<\/p>\n
In addition to Craven and Tehrani, Stake.com is a defendant in the case. In a statement, the company’s lawyers call the allegations “utterly frivolous” and “provably false.” If a judge doesn’t dismiss the case, they said they’re ready to defend the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
A Piece of the Action<\/h2>\n
Freeman’s lawsuit cites Craven’s real estate acquisitions as proof of Stake.com’s overwhelming success. This, he states, was only possible because of his involvement and ideas.<\/p>\n
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In August, Craven paid AU$80 million (US$53.34 million) for a “ghost mansion” in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak. In addition, entities connected to Craven allegedly purchased other properties for AU$38 million (US$25.82 million) earlier this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Freeman explained that he went to school with Tehrani in Connecticut and that he had been friends with the Stake.com cofounder since they were young. That led to a business relationship that, according to Freeman, allowed Tehrani and Craven to achieve success.<\/p>\n
Freeman claims in his lawsuit that he initially owned 20% of Primedice, a cryptocurrency dice game, while Tehrani and Craven owned 40%. Freeman says Primedice shares fell to 14% of their original value within nine months of its founding.<\/strong><\/p>\nThis drop was due to the company using the shares to pay the development team, according to Freeman. He claims that, despite Primedice’s agreement to only give shares to those who invested money in the company, Craven and Tehrani made a different decision.<\/p>\n
Pushing Freeman Out<\/h2>\n
Freeman claimed that he and his business partners discussed the idea of a cryptocurrency casino in 2016 as the price of cryptocurrencies rose.\u00a0 Tehrani and Craven shot down the idea, supposedly because of potential regulatory concerns.<\/p>\n
However, Freeman thinks the two were already conspiring against him. He claims that Tehrani and Craven discouraged him from joining their new venture, which would ultimately become Stake.com.<\/strong><\/p>\nThey allegedly told him that he could only participate if he moved to Australia. In addition, they explained that the new business would only trade in fiat currency, such as the US dollar and euro. This, Freeman said at the time, was too risky because of the amount of competition in the fiat gambling space. As a result, he backed out.<\/p>\n