Mt. Gox

Gregory Greene, of Illinois, files a class action lawsuit against Mt. Gox for its loss of approximately 750,000 Bitcoins valued at more than $400 million. Filed in the U.S. District Court in Chicago, the 32 page legal complaint accuses Mt. Gox and Mark Karpeles of consumer fraud and negligence for failing to provide the necessary security to prevent theft of the Bitcoin reserves, as well as claims they are guilty of breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment. Although Greene is the only named plaintiff in the suit, the complaint lists “all persons in the United States who had Bitcoins or Fiat Currency stored with Mt. Gox on February 7, 2014.”

Mt. Gox and bitcoin business incubator, Coinlab had formed a business partnership last November, giving  CoinLab the exclusive license to market Mt. Gox’s services in North America. But CoinLab had filed a complaint on May 2, claiming $75million damages, alleging that Mt. Gox had withheld information it needed to market to customers, instead continuing to sell into North America itself. In response, Mt. Gox alleges that CoinLab was not able to operate lawfully as its partner in the US, the reason for the $5.5m damages suit.

Coinlab’s files a Federal lawsuit inWashington State. Coinlab alleging that Mt. Gox has breached a contract clause which was supposed to give Coinlab exclusive access to the North American market. The lawsuit states:

Defendants have breached the exclusivity provisions of the Agreement by directly servicing customers in the United States and Canada since the Agreement took effect

Despite repeated requests to do so, Mt. Gox has failed to deliver all passwords, Yubikeys, administrative logins and any other security information required so that CoinLab may assume operation of the Bitcoin exchange services for customers in the United States and Canada.

Coinlab is demanding $75 million in damages, and even that, it says, “likely underestimates the actual damages.”

Karpeles is sued by a customer who claims he had paid 15,000 euros ($20,700) for a website to be developed that was never built. The Tokyo District Court rules in May 2013 that Karpeles has to return the money.