PlayUp FTX deal lawsuit tossed out of court in massive win for ex-CEO

A long lawsuit between the ex-CEO of PlayUp and the company has been dismissed by a Nevada judge. PlayUp was in the running to be snapped up by cryptocurrency exchange FTX, but the plaintiffs claim that ex-CEO Dr. Laila Mintas had caused the deal to collapse.

Mintas, meanwhile, pointed the finger at PlayUp’s current CEO. Anything that PlayUp has brought against Mintas has been swept aside, while her own claims are now going ahead to trial.

These include defamation, breach of contract, and false light, which is the act of portraying someone in a misleading way. Current CEO, Daniel Simic, had claimed that Mintas had “blown the deal” after a dinner with other employees.

Mintas was the CEO from 2019 to 2021, before being ousted over the failed deal in which was originally described as being blown up over a salary dispute.

Mintas will now seek $100 million in damages, with a source speaking to Next.io that the current focus is to secure “rightful compensation”. According to the source, this legal dispute has caused her career to stall, with some companies unwilling to work with her due to the ongoing lawsuit.

PlayUp’s FTX deal could have potentially never gone through, either way. The company was embroiled in its own legal tussle, as CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud in 2022. This caused the company to go into bankruptcy.

FTX had apparently said it would invest $35 million into PlayUp before the purchase. This also added complications to other deals, as its planned expansion into the US failed to materialize. In 2023, it was seeking $10 million to get itself clear of the FTX deal, but couldn’t raise any more, or it’d increase holdings in the company by FTX.

According to figures from 2023, PlayUp was estimated to be worth $350 million. PlayUp was bought by Simic after it had gone into liquidation in 2016.

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