James Cirrone


<p>A growing dispute over the Milady Maker NFT collection’s leadership has evolved from online drama to a courtroom battle.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Four people affiliated with the Remilia Corporation — John Duff, Henry Smith, Maxwell Roux and Bruno Nispel — have accused Krishna Okhandiar of the misappropriation of millions of dollars and an attempt to take sole control of the company, which oversees the NFT collection.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The lawsuit, filed Sept. 22, comes in the wake of a separate lawsuit filed by Okhandiar earlier this month. Combined, the group have all claimed to either be founders or co-founders of the project.&nbsp;</p>



<p>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 boasts a current floor price of 2.27 ETH (nearly $3,600).</p>



<p>Disputes on multiple different levels between individuals at Remilia, previously thought to be a DAO, have been brewing since Okhandiar, also known as Charlotte Fang, was revealed in a May 2022 document <a href="https://twitter.com/0xngmi/status/1528572556894142464?lang=en">release</a> to be behind the inflammatory online persona “Miya.”</p>



<p>At the time, Okhandiar said he’d be taking a break from Remilia, despite saying that “Miya” had nothing to do with the Milady project. He said he handed control to Henry Smith and Bruno Nispel, two of the individuals behind the new lawsuit.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">OK, full disclosure: I was Miya. And its toxic baggage that’s hurting Milady community &amp; poisoning the vibe. I apologize about trying to hide the past account—Miya has nothing to do with Milady Maker &amp; should stay that way so I’ll be stepping down from the team from here.</p>&mdash; ♡ Charlotte Fang 🐉 Crown Prince (@CharlotteFang77) <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlotteFang77/status/1527987970862718976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p>Acrimony between the five individuals most closely associated with Milady and Remilia reignited once more when Okhandiar claimed that an unknown developer seized control of Milady and Remilia social media accounts as well as $1 million worth of generated fees. These allegations were contained in a <a href="https://docs.remilia.org/lawsuit.pdf">lawsuit</a> filed by Okhandiar on Sept. 10.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Good morning. A developer who worked on Bonkler took steps that allowed him to divert ~$1MM USD in Remilia’s generated fees.<br><br>The Bonkler reserves, main contract and NFTs are safe; only Remilia’s revenue from Bonkler was compromised.<br><br>We’ve temporarily paused Bonkler’s daily mint… <a href="https://t.co/1QOQDiXka3">pic.twitter.com/1QOQDiXka3</a></p>&mdash; ♡ Charlotte Fang 🐉 Crown Prince (@CharlotteFang77) <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlotteFang77/status/1701245168039452947?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p>In their countersuit, the plaintiffs claimed that Okhandiar essentially forced them out of the 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.</p>



<p>The Friday <a href="https://content.wrappr.wtf/ipfs/QmXHZqLQQuefzorBGGVGoFiy5sGEXfd2wwf8CWcFnBd9LR">court filing</a> alleged that all five members were to be considered co-founders and have equity in the company, but they claimed that the supposed plan never materialized.</p>



<p>“Okhandiar failed and refused to provide to Plaintiffs a sign [sic] shareholders’ agreement or provide to Plaintiffs any corporate formation documents of any kind, such as an operating agreement or membership roll,” the suit alleged. “Okhandiar failed to issue any equity in either RemCorp or RemIndustries to the Plaintiffs despite his written promises to do so.”</p>



<p>Okhandiar’s suit against Duff, Smith and Roux paints a substantially different picture.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Okhandiar claims that he was the sole founder of Remilia in January 2021 and that he is the only leader of the company. He also claims that Duff, Smith and Roux aren’t employees or equity holders of the company. Rather, they’re independent contractors, the lawsuit states.</p>



<p>Duff, Smith, Roux and also Bruno Nispel instead argue that they’re owed unpaid salaries and bonuses. They claim that money went to Okhandiar.</p>



<p><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-watch-milady-maker-twitter-storm-and-gamestops-ethereum-wallet">Web3 Watch: Milady Maker Twitter storm and GameStop’s Ethereum wallet</a></p>



<p>“Okhandiar, improperly using his control of the Collective Venture’s multi-signature wallet, transferred approximately $600,000 worth of Remilia’s digital assets [&#8230;] to his personal wallet as arbitrary unilateral ‘bonuses’ to himself,” according to the filing.</p>



<p>Okhandiar is also alleged to have removed the plaintiffs from a multi-signature wallet controlling Remilia&#8217;s treasury. The suit claims he drained the wallet of an additional $1.7 million.</p>



<p>Beyond the accusations of theft of funds and a corporate coup, the plaintiffs once again raised up the year-old “Miya” scandal involving Okhandiar and his penchant for engaging in callous, antagonizing behavior on the internet.</p>



<p>The court filing includes an alleged list of Okhandiar’s aliases in online communities, including Charlotte Fang, among others.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Roux, one of the plaintiffs, claims he was called multiple different slurs by Okhandiar in chat messages.</p>



<p>“The working experience is far from pleasant or acceptable. Okhandiar subjects the other&nbsp; Founding Group members and employees to verbal abuse and harassment,” according to the filing. “Despite the abuse, the Founding Group members continued to work on the Collective Venture’s NFT Projects.”</p>



<p>The four people claiming to be Remilia founders have demanded unpaid wages and the creation of a constructive trust containing the assets, funds and intellectual property in the form of the NFTs they made.</p>



<p>Blockworks reached out to attorneys representing Okhandiar and the four other Remilia-affiliated individuals but didn’t receive an immediate response.</p>



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Legal dispute around Milady NFTs accelerates with Delaware countersuit

Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_628bfcc6dfb36" class="highlights">
        <ul>
                <li>Milady Maker founder apologizes over “toxic baggage”</li>
                <li>Chinese citizens mint NFTs to beat censorship</li>
            </ul>
    
</div>



<p>Profile picture NFT project Milady Maker is causing a stir on Twitter after its ​​founder was called out for controversial tweets and a shady internet history. Anonymous online collective Remilia created the Y2K Tokyo street fashion-inspired avatars that sold for an average price of $6,000 in April.</p>



<p>The collection has seen consecutive losses in the past few days as Remilia’s CEO, Charlotte Fang, also known as Charlie, stepped down from the project. When crypto Twitter accused Fang of being tied to an account named &#8220;Miya,&#8221; associated with hate speech and cults, the founder initially denied it. On Saturday, however, Fang confessed to being Miya and apologized for trying to hide its “toxic baggage.”</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">OK, full disclosure: I was Miya. And its toxic baggage that’s hurting Milady community &amp; poisoning the vibe. I apologize about trying to hide the past account—Miya has nothing to do with Milady Maker &amp; should stay that way so I’ll be stepping down from the team from here.</p>&mdash; ♡ Charlotte Fang 刹利 🍎 (@CharlotteFang77) <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlotteFang77/status/1527987970862718976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p>It is unclear what the true story behind Remilia and Milady is, but one Twitter user, @0xngmi, claims to have “proof” of the allegations against Miya. The user posted a thread on Sunday night compiling their theories, which quickly spread over Twitter and caused a number of holders to dump their Miladys.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">megathread on milady and their founders:<br><br>&#8211; miya&#39;s writings<br>&#8211; Grooming<br>&#8211; Gaslighting<br>&#8211; Systemspace and suicide of 17yo teen<br>&#8211; Remilia implication<br><br>proof of everything will be at the end of the thread</p>&mdash; 0xngmi is grazing (@0xngmi) <a href="https://twitter.com/0xngmi/status/1528572556894142464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Buterin vs. Bored Apes&nbsp;</strong></h3>



<p>Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently published a Twitter thread expressing his conflicted feelings about Web3 and Ethereum use cases that may “contradict” his values.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Among those contradictions is a “dislike of many modern financial blockchain ‘applications’ ($3M monkeys etc), and my grudging appreciation for the fact that that stuff is a big part of what keeps the crypto economy running,” Vitalik wrote.&nbsp;</p>



<p>His reference to Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs (non-fungible tokens) as “$3M monkeys” incited many users to respond. @just1n_eth <a href="https://twitter.com/just1n_eth/status/1526427070821085184?s=20&amp;t=Zi7oGRhESvHiWx3aaMHQ2w" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">called on</a> Buterin to “respect” Bored Apes, “instead of consistently taking your shots.” Another user, @OGDeathBot, <a href="https://twitter.com/OGDeathBot/status/1526417041774612480?s=20&amp;t=Zi7oGRhESvHiWx3aaMHQ2w" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pointed out</a> that digital collectibles are “fun” and “necessary for mainstream adoption.”</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thread: some still open contradictions in my thoughts and my values, that I have been thinking about but still don&#39;t feel like I&#39;ve fully resolved.</p>&mdash; vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) <a href="https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1526378787855736832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 17, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p>In other BAYC news, a Singaporean man has won a court injunction that froze his BAYC #2162 NFT, preventing any potential sale or ownership transfer. The NFT is currently pending the resolution of an ownership dispute after it was foreclosed on as collateral for an NFT loan that the owner had taken out against it. The leading counsel for the case, Shaun Leong, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-20/bored-ape-nft-barred-from-sale-by-singapore-court-after-dispute" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> Bloomberg: “It is the first decision in a commercial dispute where NFTs are recognized as valuable property worth protecting.&#8221;&nbsp;</p>



<p>On Sunday night, the window to claim Otherdeed for Otherside land for BAYC and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT holders officially closed. <a href="https://twitter.com/OthersideMeta/status/1528556346672656385?s=20&amp;t=Ho9oOYC7IBPzgne4xO1Tzw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According</a> to the team, the first tech demo will happen on July 16. Yuga Labs opened the Otherdeed sale on April 30 and has since dropped trailers and teasers of its much-anticipated Otherside metaverse and RPG game.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>GameStop and Loopring launch MetaMask-like wallet</strong></h3>



<p>Video game retailer GameStop announced its latest Web3 move, launching the beta version of a self-custodial Ethereum wallet. It uses Loopring, an Ethereum layer-2 solution, that is built to enable cheaper and faster transactions than with Ethereum layer-1 mainnet.</p>



<p>Wallet users can access their assets via a private key and can store and trade ETH, NFTs and ERC-20 tokens through their web browsers. The wallet comes as a browser extension, similar to MetaMask, and is available on Chrome’s web store. The wallet supports cryptocurrencies and NFT operability across multiple decentralized apps (Dapps), including GameStop’s beta NFT marketplace.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It’s official! The GameStop Wallet is here.<br><br>Download: <a href="https://t.co/GkxiRaYN7W">https://t.co/GkxiRaYN7W</a><br>Follow: <a href="https://twitter.com/GameStopNFT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GameStopNFT</a><br>🧵👇</p>&mdash; GameStop (@GameStop) <a href="https://twitter.com/GameStop/status/1528693604364976129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>Recently, GameStop partnered with Immutable X, a layer-2 scaling platform built on Ethereum, to power its forthcoming blockchain-based marketplace that will reportedly launch in the second quarter of this year. The two companies also <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/gamestop-immutable-to-launch-100-joint-fund-for-gaming-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launched a $100 million joint fund</a> to invest IMX tokens in NFT-focused gaming projects.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>NFTs are used to combat censorship in China</strong></h3>



<p>A noteworthy use case for NFTs is becoming increasingly popular in China, where citizens are leveraging NFTs to secure images, videos, audio and social media posts on a blockchain before the Chinese government can get to it.</p>



<p>Since Shanghai mandated its 25 million residents back into lockdown, Chinese internet censors have been scrubbing content from social media that shows any negative images and experiences, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/nfts-are-put-to-new-use-in-china-countering-censorship-during-pandemic-11653134403?mod=Searchresults_pos2&amp;page=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a> to the Wall Street Journal.</p>



<p>For example, one six-minute video clip dubbed “Voices of April” featuring audio recordings of conversations and cries for help from Shanghai residents struggling to access food and medical care went viral on April 22 but was deleted.</p>



<p>In response, internet users minted copies of the <a href="https://opensea.io/collection/voice-of-april" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">video into NFTs on OpenSea</a>, not necessarily for profit but to preserve history.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>OpenSea launches open-source Web3 marketplace protocol&nbsp;</strong></h3>



<p>NFT marketplace OpenSea <a href="https://opensea.io/blog/announcements/introducing-seaport-protocol/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launched</a> on May 20 a new protocol for buying and selling NFTs that will broaden the range of assets that can be traded as well as hand control over the marketplace to developers.&nbsp;</p>



<p>According to the company, the new protocol, known as Seaport, is a “foundation to empower the developer community to work together” to unlock use cases that “keep the community safe.” The protocol is not controlled by OpenSea, and its core smart contract is open to all NFT builders, creators and collectors to optimize.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Users of marketplaces built on the Seaport protocol will be able to offer a range of assets in exchange for an NFT, including ERC-20, ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens, in addition to ETH. OpenSea considers this system safer because a user can agree to barter with a combination of tokens as a method of payment.</p>



<p>Additionally, users can specify certain criteria, such as rarities or NFT traits, that they would require to accept an offer. Seaport will even support “tipping,” so long as the amount does not exceed the original offer.</p>



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<p><strong>Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.</strong></p>



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