A growing dispute over the leadership of the Milady Maker NFT collection has evolved from online drama to a courtroom battle.
Four people associated with the Remilia Corporation – John Duff, Henry Smith, Maxwell Roux and Bruno Nispel – have accused Krishna Okhandiar of embezzling millions of dollars and attempting to take exclusive control of the company, which oversees the NFT collection.
The lawsuit, filed on September 22, comes in the wake of a separate lawsuit Okhandiar filed earlier this month. Combined, the groups have all claimed to be founders or co-founders of the project.
The popular Milady NFTs hit the market in August 2021. On OpenSea, the collection has a total volume of 82,902 ETH (over $131 million at the time of writing) and a current floor price of 2.27 ETH (nearly $3,600).
Disputes at multiple different levels between individuals at Remilia, previously thought to be a DAO, have been brewing since Okhandiar, aka Charlotte Fang, was revealed as responsible for the incendiary online persona in a May 2022 document release “Miya.”
At the time, Okhandiar said he would be taking a break from Remilia, despite saying ‘Miya’ had nothing to do with the Milady project. He said he had handed over control to Henry Smith and Bruno Nispel, two of the people behind the new lawsuit.
Okay, full disclosure: I was Miya. And the toxic baggage that harms the Milady community and poisons the atmosphere. I apologize for trying to hide the previous account. Miya has nothing to do with Milady Maker and should stay that way, so I will be leaving the team from here on out.
— ♡ Charlotte Fang 🐉 Crown Prince (@CharlotteFang77) May 21, 2022
Bitterness between the five individuals most closely associated with Milady and Remilia flared again when Okhandiar claimed that an unknown developer had taken control of Milady and Remilia’s social media accounts, as well as $1 million in fees generated. These allegations were contained in a lawsuit Okhandiar filed on September 10.
Good morning. A developer working on Bonkler took steps that allowed him to divert ~$1MM USD in Remilia’s generated fees.
The Bonkler reserves, the main contract and the NFTs are safe; only Remilia’s income from Bonkler was in jeopardy.
We have temporarily suspended Bonkler’s daily coin… pic.twitter.com/1QOQDiXka3
— ♡ Charlotte Fang 🐉 Crown Prince (@CharlotteFang77) September 11, 2023
In their countersuit, the plaintiffs alleged that Okhandiar essentially forced them out of Remilia Corporation (RemCo), the company behind Milady NFTs. That, despite their claimed activities as NFT artists who say they introduced Okhandiar to the world of non-fungible tokens in 2021.
Friday’s lawsuit alleged that all five members should be considered co-founders and have shares in the company, but they claimed the supposed plan never came to fruition.
“Okhandiar failed and refused to give the plaintiffs a sign [sic] shareholder agreement or providing plaintiffs with corporate formation documents of any kind, such as an operating agreement or membership directory,” the lawsuit alleged. “Okhandiar has failed to issue any share capital in RemCorp or RemIndustries to the plaintiffs despite his written promises to do so.”
Okhandiar’s lawsuit against Duff, Smith and Roux paints a significantly different picture.
Okhandiar claims that he was the sole founder of Remilia in January 2021 and that he is the sole leader of the company. He also claims that Duff, Smith and Roux are not employees or shareholders of the company. Rather, they are independent contractors, the lawsuit said.
Duff, Smith, Roux and also Bruno Nispel instead claim they are owed unpaid salaries and bonuses. They claim the money went to Okhandiar.
“Okhandiar, improperly using his control over the Collective Venture multi-signature wallet, transferred approximately $600,000 worth of Remilia digital assets […] to his personal wallet as arbitrary one-sided ‘bonuses’ for himself,” the filing said.
Okhandiar also allegedly removed the claimants from a multi-signature wallet that Remilia’s treasury controls. The lawsuit claims he emptied the wallet of another $1.7 million.
In addition to charges of money theft and a corporate coup, prosecutors again brought up the year-old “Miya” scandal involving Okhandiar and his penchant for insensitive, hostile behavior on the Internet.
The lawsuit includes an alleged list of Okhandiar’s aliases in online communities, including Charlotte Fang, among others.
Roux, one of the accusers, claims that he was verbally abused several times by Okhandiar in chat messages.
“The work experience is far from pleasant or acceptable. Okhandiar subjects the other members and employees of the Founding Group to verbal abuse and intimidation,” the filing said. “Despite the abuse, Founding Group members continued to work on the Collective Venture’s NFT projects.”
The four people claiming to be the founders of Remilia have demanded unpaid wages and the creation of a constructive trust that will house the assets, funds and intellectual property in the form of the NFTs they created.
Blockworks contacted attorneys representing Okhandiar and the four other Remilia affiliates but did not immediately receive a response.