Yuga Labs, the copyright holder behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection, has undertaken asset recovery efforts against Greg Cahen. This comes on the heels of their court victory against Ryder Ripps and Cahen in a lawsuit involving both defendants. The final judgment was entered on Feb. 2, 2024, and it became enforceable the first Saturday in March—March 3, 2024. After this judgment, Yuga Labs took aggressive action to pursue Cahen’s assets to fulfill the judgment. This move comes on the heels of claims that Cahen violated the Yuga Labs Bored Ape Yacht Club trademark.

Subpoenas and Levies

In line with its post-judgment strategy, Yuga Labs has been proactively attempting to track down Cahen’s assets and has successfully taken a number of steps to seize them. To get a better picture of what financial holdings Cahen might have, the company subpoenaed Cahen’s accountant. In addition, Yuga Labs issued subpoenas to multiple banking companies and crypto exchanges that are believed to have assets belonging to Cahen in their possession.

These levies targeted directly at the dominant actors in the financial sector and crypto space. High-profile targets were Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, Robinhood, Coinbase, Binance and Gemini. Their intended effect was to halt all assets owned by Cahen on these platforms. This new civil enforcement action seeks to forfeit those assets to pay the judgment against him.

Crypto Wallet Contents

Yuga Labs is now going after assets held in four of those crypto wallets. These wallets hold an unusual‐‐but not surprising–variety of cryptocurrencies, from BTC to ETH to PEPE coin. As of last October, the cumulative value of these assets was conservatively valued at close to $400,000.

Yuga Labs further alleges that those transfers were made by Cahen to prevent Yuga Labs from seizing those assets. This was only a day after the levy had been issued! Gemini supposedly couldn’t freeze Cahen’s accounts before the transfer was completed. Yuga Labs characterizes this transfer as a knowing effort to avoid the asset seizure process.

Cahen's Response and Legal Stance

Cahen maintains that he has no duty to respond to discovery requests so long as his appeal is pending. He has no formal stay to back this up.

Yuga Labs has taken affirmative steps under California law, essentially every month since the Court issued its Final Judgment to locate and execute upon Cahen’s assets. - Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs continues to allege that Cahen has failed to meaningfully engage with the asset recovery process.

Still, Cahen has made a mockery of this Court’s Final Judgement by refusing to pay any portion of the judgment or comply with any post-judgment discovery. - Yuga Labs