Mt. Gox Victims Must Go To Tokyo, Not US

The Mt. Gox exchange hacks still lurk in the air despite its implosion four years ago in 2014. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania determined recently it doesn’t have jurisdiction in a case that involves Gox victims and a closely associated bank, in effect condemning the victims to redress their problems at the scene of the crime which is in Tokyo, not the US. The victims must take their disputes to the Japanese courts. According to court documents, Gregory Pearce picked the worst possible time to wish try and withdraw $5,900 through the Mizuho Bank Ltd of Tokyo, Japan. The bank had the sole US market for Gox withdrawals and deposits at the time. Mizuho and Gox were both suspects for the crimes and the bank was apparently thought to be funding an organized crime outfit which didn’t help its case. The judge on the case wrote:

“Mizuho facilitated international cash wire transfers from Mt. Gox users into the exchange and processed user requests to withdraw fiat currency from the exchange to their outside bank account. When a user wished to deposit money in their Mt. Gox account, Mizuho would accept the payment that had been wired through the user’s outside banks and deposit the funds into Mt. Gox Mizuho account. Such wire transfers not only designated Mt. Gox as the beneficiary’s bank, but also included the Mt. Gox user’s account number to which the funds were to be directed.”

He went onto say:

“Likewise, when a user wished to withdraw fiat currency from their Mt. Gox account, Mt. Gox would provide the request to Mizuho for processing. Such requests included the user’s banking information and the amount to be transferred. Mizuho would then transfer out the requested amount to the user’s outside bank.”

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