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IREN, formerly Iris Energy, is being sued by investors alleging the company misled them about its high-powered computing business. The lawsuit claims IREN falsely presented its Texas facility as high-performance computing (HPC) ready. The misleading statement from June 2023 made the investors, including the lead plaintiff Paul Williams-Israel, invest in the company at an inflated price. The lawsuit, targeting co-CEOs Daniel and William Roberts and CFO Belinda Nucifora, also points to the cooling system of the HPC centre being inadequately tested. The claims hope to rectify the false presentation and recover damages.

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IREN, which used to be known as Iris Energy, is facing a lawsuit from investors who allege the crypto mining company misled them about their high-powered computing business.

The lawsuit, fronted by Paul Williams-Israel, claims IREN’s facility in Childress, Texas was falsely presented as data centre-ready for high-performance computing (HPC). They argue that the computing capacity was exaggerated.

Williams-Israel alleges that misleading information from a statement made by IREN in June 2023 resulted in many investors putting their money into the company. The statement announced an extension of their Childress site and a reboot of their HPC strategy. However, the plaintiffs contend it overstated IREN’s ability to operate in high-performance computing space, and the Childress site was not equipped for data centres and HPC. This led to investors, including Williams-Israel, investing in IREN based on an artificially inflated price.

The lawsuit also targets IREN’s two CEO brothers, Daniel and William Roberts, along with their chief financial officer, Belinda Nucifora.

On top of these claims, Williams-Israel says the air cooling design of the Childress HPC centre, which was supposed to stop it from getting too hot, was not properly tested. A report by short-selling firm Culper Research brought this to light, stating that the cooling system was only tested in British Columbia, Canada, where temperatures are 20 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit cooler year-round compared to Texas.

The lawsuit aims to check IREN, and recover damages caused by the company, its bosses, and Nucifora. The amount of compensation will be decided in a jury trial.

IREN has not responded to requests for comment. Despite the ongoing lawsuit, the company’s share price increased by 10.44% in the last year, and it remains the seventh-largest Bitcoin miner, according to Companies Market Cap.

Source: Cointelegraph