Former Helius Engineer Accuses Founder of Corporate Misrepresentation and Workplace Toxicity

Miles Smith, the former lead infrastructure engineer at Helius, has come forward with allegations of corporate misrepresentation, workplace toxicity, and sabotage against the company’s founder, Mert Mumtaz.

Allegations of Intellectual Property Theft and Misconduct

According to Smith, the issues began when Mumtaz allegedly stole intellectual property from a winning team at a Solana hackathon in 2023. Smith claims that Mumtaz’s actions were part of a larger pattern of behavior that included verbal abuse and deception.

Specifically, Smith alleges that Mumtaz claimed a human-readable Solana block explorer as a Helius product, despite having hosted and funded the team earlier. This, Smith claims, was a clear conflict of interest.

Workplace Toxicity and Corporate Misrepresentation

Smith also alleges that Mumtaz created a toxic work environment at Helius, including screaming abuse at a female Cloudflare sales representative. Additionally, Smith claims that Mumtaz misrepresented the company’s technical capacity to inflate its appearance.

Smith claims that Helius used paid services like QuickNode to mask its mediocre performance, allowing the company to pretend to have better uptime than it actually did.

Post-Helius Career Sabotage

Smith alleges that Mumtaz attempted to sabotage his career after he left Helius in 2023. Smith claims that Mumtaz constructively dismissed him and began actively obstructing his fundraising efforts for a new startup.

Smith alleges that many of his fundraising attempts have been unsuccessful because investors who expressed interest in his startup reached out to Mumtaz for a reference.

Despite these allegations, Helius has continued to grow, raising a $9.5 million Series A funding round in 2024 to expand its staff.

Tips for Avoiding Corporate Misrepresentation and Workplace Toxicity

  • Research the company thoroughly before investing or joining as an employee.
  • Look for red flags such as a history of conflicts or lawsuits.
  • Verify the company’s claims about its technical capacity and performance.

It’s essential to prioritize transparency and accountability in the crypto and web3 spaces to prevent corporate misrepresentation and workplace toxicity.

Stay up-to-date with the latest news and developments in the crypto and web3 spaces by following Global Crypto News.

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