A reader confirmed up within the feedback as we speak 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 seemed 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 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 web site.
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 companies to BitcoinsBrain
As alleged by Gloria Jung Yun, on a buddy’s advice she invested bitcoin into GladiaCoin.
Plaintiff Yun determined to affix with small bitcoin quantity of zero.1 to witness the return of the cash as said 2.2% day by day.
Positive sufficient the bitcoins have been accumulation [sic] to pay out as claimed by her pals.
Plaintiff Yun borrowed cash to make use of for a couple of months and deposited whole four.eight cash to GladiaCoin.
Plaintiff Yun misplaced 1.three cash (further) by technical error at GladiaCoin through the use of flawed deposit digital key offered by GladiaCoin and one member informed Jun to contact Mr. Portillo.
Mr. Portillo claimed to have contact with administration/tech help although it was not listed on the web site.
Yun acquired zero.2 bitcoin of whole misplaced 1.three bitcoins again at her bitcoin pockets.
Mr. Portillo was pretending to assist the problems however didn’t return the remainder 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 zero.3333333 earlier than GladiaCoin shut down.
GladiaCoin was paying nicely as promised as said within the web site to achieve belief.
Plaintiff Yun and others didn’t take note of no contact data 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 help as prime degree Sponsor (prime of the pyramid scheme).
GladiaCoin paid Plaintiff till Could 18, 2018 however the accounts have been down and no one received paid for a couple of days.
GladiaCoin reopened on Could 24th, 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 payment. No pay outs from this present day ahead.
Yun alleged Portillo deleted all his GladiaCoin social media advertising after the Ponzi scheme collapsed.
Yun didn’t put money into TwiceCoin however notes it was a clone of GladiaCoin, probably run by the identical folks.
She invested (and seems to have misplaced) zero.01 in BitcoinsBrain, on the advice of “a girl”.
Apart from noting “Plaintiff Yun’s upline sponsor misplaced bitcoins by JetCoin”, I’m unsure 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 in search of what she invested in bitcoin, plus $1 million and $2 million in damages from every particular person defendant and firm respectively.
Wanting on the case docket, on Could fifth 2018 Yun was granted permission to serve pre-discovery subpoenas on GoDaddy, CloudFlare and AT&T.
The purpose 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 30th 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 supply data on defendants however provided that they have been voluntarily dismissed from the lawsuit.
GoDaddy said that they may 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 mentioned that if defendants’ data have 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 mentioned that they’ll present data outdoors of the lawsuit, Plaintiff didn’t objected this order.
GoDaddy failed to supply the knowledge outdoors of the courtroom after dismissal and Plaintiff has problem discovering the Defendants the place about.
On August 21st, 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 unsure the place they got here from.
Yun was given 100 days to supply tackle 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 19th, 2021, pertaining to service on Johnson.
Personally I don’t suppose this case goes to go wherever. It’s an excellent 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.
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