Kraken Seeks Final Judgment Against Former Auditor Over $22 Million Award

Kraken has asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to enter a final judgment against its former auditor, Mazars USA, after an arbitrator awarded the firm $22 million. The dispute stems from December 2023, when Mazars withdrew from Kraken's 2022 audit just days before completion. Mazars had audited Kraken for three prior years and issued two clean opinions.

Co-CEO Arjun Sethi wrote that Mazars confirmed it had no disagreement with management, no concerns about the firm's integrity, and no findings of fraud. However, Mazars attributed its resignation to legal developments, including a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Kraken in December 2022.

The SEC complaint was dismissed with prejudice, with no penalties and no admission of wrongdoing. Kraken said the abandoned audit cost it years and millions of dollars in legal fees to secure new auditors and reassure banks, regulators, and counterparties.

The exchange has since received a clean audit in each year that followed. Sethi placed the episode within what critics call Operation Chokepoint 2.0, a term for what they describe as a coordinated effort by regulators to cut lawful crypto firms off from banking and other services.