Suit alleges manager stripped responsibilities and withheld commissions after employee disclosed fertility plans
A former sales executive at Kraken claims she was fired while ten weeks pregnant after her manager stripped away her responsibilities and gave them to male colleagues.
Ayse Iyigundogdu filed suit against Payward Inc., the company behind cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, in Manhattan federal court on November 6. The case centers on allegations that paint a cautionary picture for employers navigating fertility benefits, workplace accommodations, and gender equity.
Iyigundogdu joined Kraken in 2018 and rose quickly. In less than two years she became the top salesperson across all company products and earned a promotion to Head of Institutional Sales and Relationships for the U.S. and Latin America. After rebuilding the sales team when a large group left for a competitor in 2021, she brought in the company's first exchange-traded fund clients and developed a sales pipeline for Kraken's custody product worth approximately $1 billion, according to the filing.
The trajectory changed in April 2023 when Tim Ogilvie became her manager. The suit describes a systematic transfer of her key responsibilities to male colleagues with whom Ogilvie had previous relationships. Her work on custody services, ETF clients, and major accounts allegedly went to men who then took credit for relationships she had spent years building.
The situation intensified after Iyigundogdu sought...
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