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A foundation governing embattled cryptocurrency Tezos appears to want to wrest control over its development out of the hands of founders Arthur and Kathleen Breitman. The Swiss government is being urged into action.

A glimmer of hope emerged last week in the months-long fight for control of Tezos: founder Arthur and Kathleen Breitman met with Johann Gevers, who they had chosen to run a Zug-based foundation governing the cryptocurrency's assets, met last week at a conference in St. Moritz (click here to read finews.com's write-up of the event).

The meeting took place behind closed doors, but a series of at times rambling tweets sent by Gevers suggest that the embattled foundation head wants to develop the project himself. Previously, the idea was for developers in Paris and in Silicon Valley to build out the project, and for the intellectual property to be transferred to the Swiss foundation when it reached maturity.

Slammed by Community

The fight has obviously changed all that: fintech entrepreneur Gevers indicated that he is ramping up on staff and suggested he wants to lead the project's development himself.

Now that we have regained the ability to act, the Tezos Foundation is building a world-class team to execute its mission. We are recruiting proven achievers in three categories: 1. board 2. advisors 3. executive team.

Complemented by top-tier professional service providers. — Johann Gevers (@johanngevers) 19. Januar 2018

The Tezos Community, made up of contributors to the $230 million ICO, immediately slammed the move by Gevers (pictured below), who they see as the project's treacherous villain.

Gevers, whose own Monetas project recently shut its doors, has hindered the project's development and is accused of helping himself to an outsize bonus from the ICO millions, they say. The Breitmans have repeatedly asked the South African native to step down. He has resisted until now, and given the rigid legal structure of Swiss foundations, he may actually hold a stronger position, as finews.com has previously written.

Smear Campaign

Members of the very vocal Tezos community, which counts several thousand members, have lodged three class-action suits in the U.S. against Tezos for violating securities law. Investors – or contributors (the verbiage matters) – object to the idea that they poured money into the ICO without getting any tokens, or «Tezzies», in return.