A reader confirmed up within the feedback in the present day with a hyperlink to a 2017 civil lawsuit filed in opposition to GladiaCoin and JetCoin.
I hadn’t heard of the case earlier than so I went and regarded it up.
Positive sufficient on July 18th, 2017, Plaintiff Gloria Jung Yun filed swimsuit in Pennsylvania.
Named defendants in Yun’s lawsuit are three “web Ponzi schemes companies”, GladiaCoin, JetCoin and TwiceCoin.
BitcoinsBrain can also be a Ponzi scheme defendant however I haven’t come throughout it earlier than.
BitcoinsBrain’s web site seems to have been repurposed as a crypto spam website.
Defendants recognized as “web Ponzi scheme enterprise homeowners” are
- Michael Johnson, an alleged resident of New York;
- William Duane Portillo, an alleged resident of California;
- Connie Portillo, an alleged resident of California who “enjoys the advantage of (her) husband’s web Ponzi scheme enterprise”;
- Antoinio Casas, an alleged resident of Florida;
- Satur Segade, an alleged resident of someplace within the US and Colombian citizen; and
- Oscar Ismael, an alleged resident of someplace within the US and citizen of Mexico.
Co-defendants named within the lawsuit are
- GoDaddy – alleged area and internet hosting supplier for GladiaCoin and TwiceCoin
- CloudFlare – alleged to have “offered IP addresses and labored with” GladiaCoin and TwiceCoin
- Fb – allegedly utilized by particular person defendants to advertise Ponzi schemes
- AT&T – ISP allegedly utilized by TwiceCoin
- YouTube – utilized by defendants and alleged to have “data of the defendants”
- Yahoo – alleged to have offered e-mail service to defendants
- DynaDot – alleged to have present area providers to BitcoinsBrain
As alleged by Gloria Jung Yun, on a good friend’s suggestion she invested bitcoin into GladiaCoin.
Plaintiff Yun determined to hitch with small bitcoin quantity of 0.1 to witness the return of the cash as acknowledged 2.2% each day.
Positive sufficient the bitcoins had been accumulation [sic] to pay out as claimed by her buddies.
Plaintiff Yun borrowed cash to make use of for a couple of months and deposited whole 4.8 cash to GladiaCoin.
Plaintiff Yun misplaced 1.3 cash (further) by technical error at GladiaCoin through the use of mistaken deposit digital key offered by GladiaCoin and one member instructed Jun to contact Mr. Portillo.
Mr. Portillo claimed to have contact with administration/tech assist although it was not listed on the web site.
Yun acquired 0.2 bitcoin of whole misplaced 1.3 bitcoins again at her bitcoin pockets.
Mr. Portillo was pretending to assist the problems however didn’t return the remaining 1.1 bitcoins.
Sufferer Jenia (Plaintiff’s sister) deposited 1.2 bitcoins proper after Plaintiff Yun was receiving the bitcoins and he or she acquired whole 0.3333333 earlier than GladiaCoin shut down.
GladiaCoin was paying effectively as promised as acknowledged within the web site to realize belief.
Plaintiff Yun and others didn’t take note of no contact information was listed within the web site since Mr. Portillo acted as bridge to the administration to GladiaCoin.
Mr Portillo was there as belief worthy for everyone’s assist as high stage Sponsor (high of the pyramid scheme).
GladiaCoin paid Plaintiff till Might 18, 2018 however the accounts had been down and no person obtained paid for a couple of days.
GladiaCoin reopened on Might twenty fourth, 2017 and paid till June third, 2017 and shut the accounts down for the second time.
On June 4th, 2017 GladiaCoin requested to pay 15% of the deposited quantity as administration charge. No pay outs from today ahead.
Yun alleged Portillo deleted all his GladiaCoin social media advertising and marketing after the Ponzi scheme collapsed.
Yun didn’t spend money on TwiceCoin however notes it was a clone of GladiaCoin, seemingly run by the identical individuals.
She invested (and seems to have misplaced) 0.01 in BitcoinsBrain, on the advice of “a lady”.
Apart from noting “Plaintiff Yun’s upline sponsor misplaced bitcoins by JetCoin”, I’m undecided why JetCoin is a named defendant.
Yun is suing defendants for
- intentional deceptive, misrepresentation to rip-off for theft
- cash laundering and
- “racketeering actions” (RICO)
She’s searching for what she invested in bitcoin, plus $1 million and $2 million in damages from every particular person defendant and firm respectively.
Trying on the case docket, on Might fifth 2018 Yun was granted permission to serve pre-discovery subpoenas on GoDaddy, CloudFlare and AT&T.
The goal of the subpoenas was to “decide the names and addresses of the Defendants on this matter.”
GoDaddy filed a Movement to Dismiss on June fifth, 2019.
The movement was granted on January sixth, 2020, dismissing GoDaddy as a defendant.
On March thirtieth the courtroom directed Plaintiff Yun to point out trigger as to why the case shouldn’t be dismissed for failure to prosecute.
On April ninth Yun filed a declaration, stating she “couldn’t be capable to meet the order of this Court docket.”
Yun claims GoDaddy provided to offer data on defendants however provided that they had been voluntarily dismissed from the lawsuit.
GoDaddy acknowledged that they’ll present data outdoors of the courtroom if the lawsuit is dropped or they won’t present any data and can file movement to dismiss.
Plaintiff stated that if defendants’ data had been offered by GoDaddy, Plaintiff will dismiss GoDaddy from the lawsuit upon offering all data.
GoDaddy filed movement to dismiss anyway.
This Court docket granted the GoDaddy’s movement.
Since GoDaddy stated that they will present data outdoors of the lawsuit, Plaintiff didn’t objected this order.
GoDaddy failed to offer the knowledge outdoors of the courtroom after dismissal and Plaintiff has issue discovering the Defendants the place about.
On August twenty first, 2020, the courtroom directed the U.S. Marshal to serve defendants Michael Johnson, Connie Portillo, William Portillo, CloudFlare, Fb, AT&T, YouTube, Dynadot and Dancom.
Dancom isn’t talked about within the authentic criticism so I’m undecided the place they got here from.
Yun was given 100 days to offer deal with particulars for the remaining defendants.
Between August 2020 and now there’s no indication on the case docket that Yun has offered further addresses.
The USM has recorded profitable service in opposition to Cloudflare, Fb and Michael Johnson.
The final case docket entry is January nineteenth, 2021, pertaining to service on Johnson.
Personally I don’t assume this case goes to go wherever. It’s a great lesson in why you shouldn’t hand over cryptocurrency to randoms over the web although.
I’ve added Yun’s case to our case calendar. I’ll proceed to observe the docket for updates.