Crypto Firm Kasparov Seeks Sanctions Against Trader Joseph Zacherl Over Alleged Deposition Coaching
On Friday, May 1, 2026, Law360 reported that Kasparov Pte. Ltd., a cryptocurrency business, is seeking sanctions against Joseph Zacherl, a former trader, alleging he was improperly coached by his attorney during a deposition and provided intentionally ambiguous answers.
Kasparov claims Zacherl misappropriated $8.1 million in digital assets and is requesting the court to compel further discovery and order Zacherl to pay for a second deposition to ensure he “fully and honestly answer” the questions.
Kasparov’s motion asserts that Zacherl’s counsel made numerous speaking objections, gave improper instructions not to answer questions that the court had already overruled, offered unsolicited comments, and generally obstructed the deposition process, hindering the collection of vital information. This motion was filed in conjunction with Zacherl’s motion for summary judgment, in which he contends that Kasparov’s lawsuit lacks merit because the company never owned the digital assets in question.
The dispute centers on assets held in two cryptocurrency wallets associated with a digital finance project known as KeeperDAO, or the Rook Project. Kasparov alleges that Zacherl gained control of these wallets through illicit means and subsequently looted $8.1 million in digital assets. In its 2023 complaint, Kasparov likened Zacherl’s actions to a “house-sitter who changes the homeowner’s locks, declares that he now owns the house, and refuses to move out.”
Zacherl, however, argues that Kasparov is merely a “dormant Singapore shell company” with only $100 in assets and no legitimate claim to the millions of dollars in tokens issued by KeeperDAO. He characterizes KeeperDAO as having a “decentralized governance mechanism,” where transactions are public and token holders govern operations through “community decision-making” rather than a centralized management team. Zacherl claims that Kasparov’s complaint is essentially a challenge to KeeperDAO’s governance and, when stripped of hyperbole, amounts to nothing.
According to the complaint, Kasparov was established in 2020 by Taiyang Zhang and Tiantian Kullander to spearhead the KeeperDAO project. The founders brought on Zacherl to assist with software development, marketing, and internal trading efforts. Kasparov claims it created two digital wallets to support the project: a team tokens wallet funded with 1 million Rook tokens for paying project contributors and a second wallet funded with $700,000 in USD Coin.
Kasparov alleges that both wallets required multiple signatories to approve transactions. The company claims Zacherl fraudulently obtained signatory access, added his associates, and ultimately blocked Kasparov from accessing the wallets. Kasparov further alleges that Zacherl used his control to draw an exorbitant salary for himself and an associate from the DAO Treasury Wallet, which purportedly holds millions of dollars in assets generated by the KeeperDAO project.
Zacherl filed a countersuit in 2023, asserting that he was brought on as a founding partner and lead trader and given access to a Binance exchange account to store his cryptocurrency and profits from trades made by a bot he developed. He claims Kasparov later changed the password on that account, locking him out and depriving him of crypto worth over $220,000.
During Zacherl’s deposition in March in Raleigh, North Carolina, Kasparov alleges that Zacherl’s attorney, Alan Mendelsohn of Alston & Bird LLP, made numerous improper speaking objections that coached the witness. Kasparov contends that Mendelsohn instructed Zacherl to provide “filtered answers” rather than clear responses, effectively stifling his testimony. Consequently, Kasparov is requesting the court to declare certain facts as true and order a second deposition for Zacherl.
Zacherl, in his motion, argues that Kasparov has not provided evidence that it owned the digital assets in question and has not demonstrated that Zacherl violated KeeperDAO’s governance or unjustly enriched himself. Zacherl asserts that the wallets operated under a simple rule requiring multiple signatories for transactions, with no other written rules, code of conduct, or restrictions on how signatories could vote. He maintains that all his actions complied with this policy.
Source: Law360
