Riot Platforms CEO Jason Les criticized the attempt by the administration of the mining company Bitfarms to accuse him of wanting to become a majority shareholder and gain control over the business.

Jason Les said that Bitfarms’ concerns about a takeover of its business and the board’s proposal to counter potential threats go beyond traditional norms. In fact, they prohibited any shareholder from acquiring more than 15% of the company’s shares, Les noted.

Commenting on the situation, Les said that on the eve of the events, he sent a proposal to the Bitfarms board of directors to remove the chairman and interim CEO Nicholas Bonta, who has headed the Bitfarms board since 2018 and is directly responsible for ineffective corporate governance practices.

“Instead of working in good faith with shareholders, Bitfarms responded by implementing a ‘poison pill’ strategy with a trigger well below the usual 20% threshold,” Les said.

Riot’s CEO believes that such a position “demonstrates the conservatism of the Bitfarms board of directors, the lack of proper corporate governance and ignorance of the prospects for shareholders.”

According to the latest dataRiot Platforms owns 53.8 million shares of Bitfarms, which is 13.1% of the Canadian competitor’s stake.

Let us recall that on Monday, June 10, the board of directors of the mining company Bitfarms approved a decision to issue an additional block of shares in the event of detection of hostile takeover attempts by third parties.