O Court of Justice of São Paulo condemned the Bitcoin Marketbrokerage cryptocurrenciesto return more than 2 thousand units of bitcoinsequivalent to R$ 300 million in present values, to customers, according to an article in InfoMoney published this Friday (2).
Judge Celso Lourenço Morgado, of the 39th Civil Court of São Paulo, published the decision on Wednesday (31). The broker can appeal.
In a press release, he stated that, as soon as he is summoned in the legal sphere, he will appeal the decision. “The MB has not yet been notified of this sentence, but, if this decision is confirmed, it will appeal within the legal period”.
The process has its origins in 2015 and the authors are members of the same family. Thiago de Camargo Martins Cordeiro, Conceição Aparecida de Camargo Martins, Dirce Gracy Martins Cordeiro and Elisabete Martins claim to have been victims of a coup carried out by one of the founders of Bitcoin Market.
In the records, they ask for the return of the amounts deposited and compensation for moral damages, a point that was partially complied with by the Justice.
“I uphold the requests in part, to condemn the defendant, jointly and severally, to refund the 2,182.9880751 bitcoins unduly withheld, under the terms of the grounds that become an integral part of the device. I resolve the case on merit,” wrote the magistrate.
Understand the case against Bitcoin Market
The lawsuit was filed in 2015, but the story has even older roots. As reported by the portal InfoMoneyit all started in 2013.
In January of that year, Thiago Cordeiro brokered an investment with his family members, now plaintiffs, of 2,246 BTC in an alleged Bitcoin fund called “Bitcoin Rain”, which promised an average yield of 12% per month.
This alleged financial product, which was never authorized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) to be offered, was managed by businessman Leandro Marciano César, one of the co-founders of Mercado Bitcoin.
At that time, the brokerage CNPJ did not yet exist. The legal entity of Mercado Bitcoin was created in May 2013. But the site “mercadobitcoin.com.br” had been online since 2011, and was managed by the co-founder, and used by him as an intermediary platform for the fund.
In March 2013, the authors decided to partially realize their profits, and sell part of what they had in the fund. The quotation of cryptocurrency at the time it was $63, according to CoinMarketCap.
However, César claimed that, because of an alleged hack, all the value had been stolen, in order to “compromise the functioning of the Bitcoin Market and also of Bitcoin Rain”. The alleged virtual attack, however, never happened, according to expertise carried out throughout the process.
Mercado Bitcoin said in the lawsuit that the issue should be resolved between its co-founder, Thiago, and the Bitcoin Rain fund.
The brokerage also claimed that it is an illegitimate party, that is, it cannot be sued. The reason is that it is a website with the purpose of trading cryptocurrencies, acting only as an intermediary. In the records, the company also comments that, at the time of the incident, it was not configured as a legal entity.
The former partner at Mercado Bitcoin, on the other hand, claimed that he was a partner of Thiago, who would have “captured” his family members to invest together with him in the fund.
Source: Moneytimes
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