PlayUp US CEO in legal row over FTX sale sabotage claims

PlayUp’s US CEO, Laila Mintas, allegedly threatened to “burn PlayUp to the ground” rather than sell the business to cryptocurrency exchange FTX, in sensational claims published as part of a legal dispute. In a dramatic move, New Jersey- and Colorado-licensed PlayUp filed for a temporary restraining order against its CEO in Nevada and Australia in a bid to prevent Mintas from publishing “false information” and trading in PlayUp’s assets earlier this month. Mintas, appointed as US CEO of PlayUp in early 2019, agreed to join the firm for a two-year period to develop the US arm of the operation. “Dr. Mintas created PlayUp USA from scratch with very limited resources to become a meaningful player in the market with significant market access in the US, an innovative and efficient user acquisition strategy and a very talented team,” Mintas claims in her LinkedIn profile. “The US entity increased the valuation of the overall global company tremendously. PlayUp US is currently live in a few key markets including New Jersey and Colorado,” she adds.

Mintas’ agreement with PlayUp includes confidentiality and so-called non-disparagement protocols which prevented her from releasing sensitive information or making statements which portrayed PlayUp in a negative light, as well as a non-compete clause. In her negotiations to renew her two-year contract with PlayUp, Mintas asked for her salary to be doubled to $1m and shareholdings in the business to be increased to a 15% stake, something which she and PlayUp’s global CEO, Daniel Simic, could not agree on. The filing for a temporary restraining order claims Mintas breached her employment agreement during negotiations concerning the proposed sale to FTX for $450m. Mintas allegedly contacted FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried suggesting that “there is conflict within [the] management of PlayUp, there are systemic issues, and that the company is not clean”, in attempts to sabotage the sale. Further, the order alleges Mintas threatened to damage PlayUp’s reputation with gaming regulators, commercial and business trading partners, and customers if her demands were not met. “Without the benefit of counter-evidence, these issues appear to have negatively impacted PlayUp during its crucial negotiations with FTX Limited,” the filing states. “Furthermore, [the] defendant allegedly stated that ‘FTX made [her] an offer to do something directly with them’ and that she believed she could take various licences with her, suggesting that [the] defendant breached the non-competition provision of the employment agreement,” it adds. Court documents even go so far as to claim on 10 November, Mintas threatened to “burn PlayUp to the ground”, suggesting that FTX was not interested in PlayUp’s core Australian business, just the US offering. A deadline for FTX to complete the $450m acquisition of PlayUp expired on 27 November, leading to the filing of the temporary restraining order. Advisors for PlayUp suggested Mintas “has sufficient control over PlayUp and PlayUp Inc.’s technology, records, operations, data, and contracts to enable her to carry out the threats that she is making”. Earlier this month, judges in Nevada granted the temporary restraining order, preventing Mintas from breaching her employment agreement and acting in a disparaging way towards PlayUp. She has a deadline of 13 December to file her response, with the case going for a full hearing on 16 December.