Nvidia Accused of Trying to Discredit Ex-Employee in Crypto Mining Revenue Trial
Investors suing Nvidia have opposed a motion from the U.S. chipmaker that would shut out the testimony from an ex-employee.
Aug 17, 2020 at 9:56 p.m. UTCUpdated Aug 19, 2021 at 3:45 a.m. UTC
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Investors suing chipmaker giant Nvidia for allegedly misreporting the size of its crypto mining-related revenue have complained it is now trying to block key evidence from a former employee.
- The group of shareholders said Thursday that Nvidia's lawyers had gotten the former employee, dubbed "FE 5," to "disavow" several key statements and is now pushing for the whole testimony to be thrown out of court.
- Having first brought charges in December 2018, the lawsuit alleges Nvidia downplayed the quantity of graphics cards – specifically GeForce GPUs – it was selling to cryptocurrency mining operations in order to buoy the stock price.
- Nvidia has denied the accusations, claiming plaintiffs "cherry-picked" the data.
- FE 5 gave evidence for an amended complaint in mid-May that appeared to show the chipmaker's executive team, including founder and CEO Jensen Huang, was regularly updated with figures of GeForce GPUs being bought by crypto miners.
- FE 5 was head of Nvidia's consumer marketing in South Asia for five years until 2019.
- Nvidia's lawyers informed plaintiffs in June they had identified and contacted FE 5, who had responded saying he/she had spoken under the misapprehension it was for research into the semi-conductor industry and not as evidence for a trial against the company.
- Plaintiff's lawyers said they had clearly identified themselves from the start, and argue FE 5 is now giving these allegedly false statements out of fear Nvidia could retaliate against her/him.
- Plaintiffs are calling on the court to strike down Nvidia's motion to dismiss evidence partly on the basis federal courts have rejected attempts by defendants to discredit the testimony from former employees in the past.
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