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 seemed it up.
Positive sufficient on July 18th, 2017, Plaintiff Gloria Jung Yun filed go well with 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 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 good thing about (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 “supplied 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 “info of the defendants”
- Yahoo – alleged to have supplied electronic mail service to defendants
- DynaDot – alleged to have present area providers to BitcoinsBrain
As alleged by Gloria Jung Yun, on a buddy’s suggestion she invested bitcoin into GladiaCoin.
Plaintiff Yun determined to affix with small bitcoin quantity of 0.1 to witness the return of the cash as acknowledged 2.2% every day.
Positive sufficient the bitcoins had been accumulation [sic] to pay out as claimed by her associates.
Plaintiff Yun borrowed cash to make use of for a number of months and deposited complete 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 supplied by GladiaCoin and one member advised Jun to contact Mr. Portillo.
Mr. Portillo claimed to have contact with administration/tech help regardless that it was not listed on the web site.
Yun obtained 0.2 bitcoin of complete 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 obtained complete 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 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 Might 18, 2018 however the accounts had been down and no one received paid for a number 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 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 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 way of 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 looking 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 intention 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 court docket 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 info on defendants however provided that they had been voluntarily dismissed from the lawsuit.
GoDaddy acknowledged that they’ll present info outdoors of the court docket if the lawsuit is dropped or they won’t present any info and can file movement to dismiss.
Plaintiff mentioned that if defendants’ info had been supplied by GoDaddy, Plaintiff will dismiss GoDaddy from the lawsuit upon offering all info.
GoDaddy filed movement to dismiss anyway.
This Court docket granted the GoDaddy’s movement.
Since GoDaddy mentioned that they’ll present info outdoors of the lawsuit, Plaintiff didn’t objected this order.
GoDaddy failed to offer the data outdoors of the court docket after dismissal and Plaintiff has issue discovering the Defendants the place about.
On August twenty first, 2020, the court docket 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 grievance so I’m unsure 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 supplied 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 suppose this case goes to go anyplace. It’s a superb 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.
