Judge Dismisses Canada’s $465 Million Mt. Gox Class Action Lawsuit
A 2014 class action lawsuit by plaintiffs in Canada against defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has been dismissed.
The law firm representing Canadian plaintiffs in the class action against Mt. Gox, a now-defunct bitcoin exchange has revealed that the case will be dismissed.
The class action lawsuit was originally brought to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against MtGox Inc., Mt. Gox KK, Tibanne KK, Mt. Gox North America Inc., Mizuho Bank, Ltd., Mark Karpeles (CEO) and Jed Mccaleb (founder).
The case sought $465 million ($500 million CAD) in compensation for Canadians who placed their deposits in the Japan-based bitcoin exchange.
The notice [PDF], posted by Charney Lawyers PC read:
On June 17, 2016, this action will be dismissed on consent of all parties…Claims are not proceeding against any party.
Plaintiffs that seek to pursue individual claims can still choose to pursue their individual cases against those named in the class action lawsuit. Should they choose to do so, the law firm advises them to retain their own counsel as new lawsuits will be under subject to limitation periods that are in place to prevent claims placed beyond a period of time from the incident.
Meanwhile, the effort to bring a class action lawsuit in the US moved forward after a federal judge in Chicago rejected Mizuho Bank’s argument that the case should be moved to Japan instead. Mt. Gox’s banking institution, Mizuho Bank, was added to an existing US lawsuit as a defendant in March 2014. The lawsuit alleged that Mizuho had profited from the fraud and that the bank was aware and aided Mt. Gox’s fraud by providing banking services to the exchange.
Mt. Gox collapsed in February 2014 after halting all Bitcoin withdrawals after blaming a transaction malleability issue in the bitcoin protocol. Soon enough, the exchange had reportedly lost nearly 750,000 BTC.
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