Payward, Kraken's parent company escalates $25M fraud with former partner, CEO

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, filed a second amended complaint today, May 4, 2026, alleging that former custody partner Etana and its CEO Dion Brandon Russell misappropriated over $25 million in customer reserve funds through what the filing called a “Ponzi-like” scheme.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, escalated the legal tensions by accusing Etana of serious fraud allegations. 

According to Payward, Etana mixed Kraken customer reserves with its own capital and used the money to fund risky investments. While this was happening, Etana issued account statements showing fully intact balances, according to reports.

Payward accuses Etana of ‘Ponzi-like’ scheme 

Payward’s filing revealed a pattern of misuse spanning several years. The Wyoming-based exchange had entrusted Etana with hundreds of millions of dollars as part of a fiat on-chain partnership.

The lawsuit also alleged that Etana channeled at least $16 million of Kraken’s funds into promissory notes issued by Seabury Trade Capital. Those notes later bounced, and Payward claims the money was never returned. The filing also claims that Etana used customer assets to fund its own forex strategy and kept all the profit for itself.

When Kraken attempted to withdraw around $25 million from its reserves in April 2025, Etana stalled. Payward claims Etana faked accounting issues and gave misleading excuses because it simply did not have enough liquidity to fulfill the request. Apparently, instead of returning the funds, Etana was using new deposits from other customers to cover their previous losses.

Throughout this period, Etana’s dashboard updates and account statements continued to show that customer balances were secure and fully accounted for, according to the filing.

How did Etana collapse?

Colorado regulators issued cease-and-desist and suspension orders against Etana in 2025. Around November, Etana entered statutory liquidation proceedings and is now under the control of a court-appointed receiver.

The financial picture for Etana does not look good. The court-appointed official reported holdings of roughly $6.83 million despite owing more than $26 million in losses, most of which belong to Kraken. 

To make things worse, Etana’s digital assets became temporarily unavailable in March 2026 after Amazon Web Services (AWS) took down the company’s account because of unpaid fees.  

While the federal case against the official Etana entity is currently on hold, the case against Russell personally continues to proceed. Payward claimed that he had nearly total control over daily operations and personally ordered the misuse and concealment of user funds. 

As a result, the exchange wants at least $25 million in damages, along with triple damages for theft, a court order to stop further misconduct, and legal fees.

Counterparty risk remains a core crypto problem

This case highlights a real problem affecting cryptocurrency. While users regularly trust exchanges and lenders with their assets, most of the safeguards available in traditional finance (segregation of funds, deposit insurance, standardized regulation, etc) has not been consistently enforced across the industry.

The recent failures from both large players like FTX and smaller projects have demonstrated how quickly trust can disappear when users realize their money isn’t there. Etana now joins other struggling firms, such as the institutional lender Blockfills, which went bankrupt in March after stopping withdrawals. Blockfills reported around $75 million in losses and is now facing its own lawsuit for misusing customer funds, according to Cryptopolitan.

Payward’s recovery depends on the receivership claims process and any other insurance proceeds. The receiver is cooperating by producing documents and making former staff available for questioning, but Etana’s remaining assets fall quite short of what is owed, thus setting up a drawn-out creditor fight in Colorado’s federal court.

Payward is no stranger to litigation. The SEC officially closed the civil enforcement case it leveled against Kraken in March 2025. The SEC dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be reopened.

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