According to TechFlow, on September 27, Swan filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the Central District of California, accusing former employees of conspiring with Tether to steal its multi-billion dollar Bitcoin mining business.

Swan claimed that these former employees stole the company's highly proprietary Bitcoin mining monitoring software code, suppliers and business partner resources, and resigned en masse to establish a competing company, Proton Management.

The lawsuit alleges that Tether played a key role in the conspiracy by sending a “notice of default” to Swan to provide “legal cover” for a hostile takeover.

Swan is asking the court to issue a permanent injunction against Proton and for the former employees to return the stolen equipment and "confidential materials." The exact amount of damages will be determined at trial.