Cryptocurrency recovery firm Unciphered is in hot water after revelations about co-founder Morgan Marquis-Boire's dark past. The company, known for rescuing lost crypto fortunes, kept his involvement secret despite multiple sexual assault allegations dating back to 2017. CEO Eric Michaud resigned amid the scandal, and employee names vanished from the website faster than lost Bitcoin. The company bought out Marquis-Boire's shares in February 2024, but the damage to their hero status might be harder to recover.
While Unciphered built its reputation as a high-tech hero rescuing lost cryptocurrency fortunes, the company now faces its own crisis requiring a rescue. The cryptocurrency recovery firm, founded in 2021, has been rocked by revelations that Morgan Marquis-Boire, a secret co-founder, had been working behind the scenes despite facing multiple sexual assault accusations from 2017.
Talk about a skeleton in the corporate closet. The company, which operates from swanky offices in San Francisco, San Diego, and Washington, D.C., found itself in turmoil when employees discovered Marquis-Boire's hidden role in late 2023. These weren't just any employees – we're talking ex-intelligence personnel and seasoned security experts. They weren't exactly thrilled about their mystery colleague. The company has maintained its commitment to sophisticated recovery methods rather than relying on simple password cracking techniques.
Ex-spies and security pros were less than pleased to discover their secret coworker had a dark past worth hiding.
The fallout was swift and messy. CEO Eric Michaud resigned. Employee names vanished from the website faster than a Bitcoin transfer. And Marquis-Boire? He was shown the door, with his shares bought out in February 2024. The company even developed the innovative Crypto Hardware Wallet Index to help reduce confusion in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Recent DeFi platform breaches have only heightened concerns about security in the crypto industry. So much for keeping secrets in a company that specializes in revealing them.
It's quite the plot twist for a firm that had been riding high on media attention, with features in Wired and Fortune, and even an upcoming Netflix documentary. Unciphered isn't your average tech company – they're the folks who crack open locked cryptocurrency wallets when others can't, using methods that sometimes raise eyebrows in the security community.
The company's trying to save face, assuring clients that their funds are safe and that publicly associated individuals don't have access to company or client assets. Their world-class hardware forensics lab is still humming along, and their track record of successful recoveries remains impressive.
But here's the kicker: a company that built its business on helping others recover from costly mistakes just had to recover from one of its own. At least they're practiced in the art of rescue operations – though this time, it's their reputation they're trying to salvage, not someone else's crypto fortune.
