Prime Trust's board named Jor Law interim chief executive on November 29, 2022. Tom Pageler left the top job that same day, and the company said so in its own statement1. Law took the title "effective immediately," the statement said. He stepped in from a seat on the company's own board. CoinDesk's report on November 29, 2022 called him "the firm's interim CEO," citing the statement directly2.
Four leadership moves at Prime Trust on the record since 2019
Every move CryptoLately has verified there, by the day it became public
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Aug. 13, 2019 | Ortega became Chief of Regulatory Affairs. Amanda Ortega was named Chief of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance of Prime Trust |
| Aug. 11, 2020 | Pageler became COO. Tom Pageler was named President and Chief Operating Officer of Prime Trust |
| Nov. 29, 2022 | Pageler left as CEO. Tom Pageler left as Chief Executive Officer of Prime Trust |
| Nov. 29, 2022 | Law became Interim CEO. Jor Law was named Interim Chief Executive Officer of Prime Trust |
18 CEO appointments on the record in 2022
CEO appointments CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2022: 18
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 8 |
| 2020 | 7 |
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 17 |
| 2024 | 26 |
| 2025 | 35 |
| 2026 | 18 |
Prime Trust framed the appointment as a fit between Law's background and the moment. The board “appointed Jor Law to the role of Interim Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately,” the company's statement said, and it thanked Pageler "for his service" in the same breath1. Law answered for himself in that statement. “We have marquee clients, a suite of products that is unparalleled in the marketplace, and a strong core group of people. It's times like these when efficiently run companies can really emerge to be runway winners,” Law said.
Who Law was before the board seat
Law had served Prime Trust as a board member and a strategic adviser before November 29, 2022, Prime Trust's statement said. He advised multiple other digital-asset and fintech firms on the side1. Verify Investor, a company Law founded and tZERO later acquired, gave him a record building and selling a fintech business of his own before he took Prime Trust's top job. Prime Trust's statement credited him with "the regulatory, legal and international experience" the board said the company needed "to seize growth opportunities in the rapidly-evolving digital finance industry".
What came next
Nevada regulators petitioned a federal court on June 26, 2023 to put Prime Trust into receivership. Fortune's report on the filing, published June 27, 2023, named Law directly as the chief executive Prime Trust had "appointed... to turn the company around"3. The petition said Prime Trust owed clients $85.67 million in fiat while holding $2.9 million on hand. Regulators traced the shortfall to wallets the custodian lost access to around December 2021. Scott Purcell, Prime Trust's former chief executive, told Bloomberg News, "We handed the reins of a very profitable company," a comment Fortune ran beside Nevada's receivership filing on the business Law inherited.
Sources
- "Prime Trust Changes Leadership, Tom Pageler Out as CEO, Jor Law Steps in as Interim CEO," Prime Trust (via Crowdfund Insider), November 29, 2022, https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2022/11/199278-prime-trust-changes-leadership-tom-pageler-out-as-ceo-jor-law-steps-in-as-interim-ceo/
- "Crypto Services Firm Prime Trust Replaces CEO Tom Pageler," CoinDesk, November 29, 2022, https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/29/crypto-services-firm-prime-trust-has-fired-ceo-tom-pageler
- "Nevada seeks to impound assets of a crypto wallet firm that owes clients over $156 million but only has half that amount left," Fortune, June 27, 2023, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMihgFBVV95cUxPbHNRVjZkODFxckswQVV3TnNCRUI3S0xGaEJEYV9vOFVuTTFLakUzeHVQQmRvZ05EM09lNUYyVjNWbnd3RGV0QU9FSEV5VmNEMk01WFMyWlNrMFdrMkQ1X01sVTF6YkxobS1XelE4Y2Q2QUViT3d3Ty1Oc2h5X0VQRkoxSEFXZw