By
Godfrey Benjamin
December 27th, 2023
The group of U.S. investors seeking to buy and revive Mt. Gox has pulled another unexpected tactical move aimed at blocking liquidation of the failed bitcoin exchange and instead getting a rehabilitation plan accepted by the Japanese bankruptcy court.
District Court with the lawyers of creditors filed details of the agreement, which also involved Mt. Gox’s former owner, Mark Karpeles, and company’s former chief marketing officer, in Chicago on Monday.
The U.S. and Canadian customers of bankrupted Tokyo based exchange Mt. Gox have finally agreed to settle class action lawsuits that claimed the company robbed them of hundreds of millions of dollars.
According to court filings, the class action plaintiffs admitted the idea by Sunlot Holdings to buy the failed exchange and accept their share of bitcoins still held by Mt. Gox.
Mt. Gox, once the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan and then in the United States earlier this year, after reporting it lost 850,000 bitcoins due to cyber criminals who hacked their security system.
After the Tokyo District Court said yes to the company’s request to give up plans of bringing back its business, Mt. Gox filed for liquidation.
Sunlot, a company that is run by a former child actor Brock Pierce, who turned out an entrepreneur, and a venture capitalist William Quigley. It is planned that after the purchase of Mt. Gox by Sunlot, the US and Canada customers will share a 16.5 percent stake.
Moreover, the creditors worldwide will share the 200,000 bitcoins that earlier Mt. Gox announced it found in an old online wallet.
“This is the customers’ best option and the only chance they have for full restitution,” said Jay Edelson of the Edelson law firm, the lead attorney in the U.S. case.
Earlier Sunlot has offered to buy Mt. Gox for only one bitcoin, or around $500, according to the Wall Street Journal. However, the deal can be done only after the approval from the Tokyo court.
The Japanese court assigned Nobuaki Kobayashi to take control over Mt. Gox exchange’s assets. However, Mr. Kobayashi did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday (public holiday in Japan).
The settlement releases Mt. Gox’s founder, Jed McCaleb, and Gonzague Gay-Bouchery, the former exchange’s chief marketing officer.
The pair agreed to help pursue the class action against the remaining defendants: Mark Karpeles, Mt. Gox CEO; parent company Tibanne Co. Ltd, the company’s banking partner Mizuho Bank Ltd and others.
However, the settlement needs to be approved by both the Canadian and U.S. courts overseeing the class actions cases.