The period from June 2019 to September 2020 was a busy time for Micha Golod – the CEO of CrowdWiz.io. His lawyers were fighting fearlessly in Russian courts in order to get their hands on the cryptocurrency of victims of CrowdWiz.io ICO scam.
Not only were they claiming the remaining cryptocurrency, but they misrepresented the amount of funds held in multi-sig wallets (as if nothing was spent from the funds), came up with a ridiculous amount of damages ($1,242,064.36), and forgot to mention that CrowdWiz.io was the property of Tradologic Solutions, where my company happened to be a majority shareholder, defrauded of assets by the same people who were now trying to sue me.
None of the above facts really affected the ruling of the courts however. Matter of fact is the Russian courts are immune to justice towards foreign crypto investors. But unwittingly this time however, the rusted gears of Russian justice have spat out a series of good decisions.
The fact that the crypto funds are not in the hands of criminals and that I don’t have to pay some ridiculous damages is for sure fair and beneficial to current holders of tokens. As a bonus to the holders the fact that this process took many months allowed for significant regain in the value of the ETH stuck in multi-sig wallet.
Below is the boring timeline of the court decisions.
June 25, 2019 – Moscow Arbitration Court
CrowdWiz OU submits a statement of claim against KRYPTON LLC and V. A. Smirnov:
- to ensure the return of ETH 1922.903438, BTC 2.1457893617, LTC 199.5696692 to the digital wallets of contributors in proportion to the size of the contribution of each contributor;
- to return the amount of unjustified enrichment and interest in the amount of 1,242,064.36 US dollars.
On November 1, 2019, the Moscow Arbitration Court rules: To refuse to satisfy the stated requirements in full.
Here is the google translate of the ruling:
Refusing to satisfy the claim, the court indicated that the plaintiff did not provide evidence that the cryptocurrency of specific types in a certain amount belonged to the plaintiff, and that the cryptocurrency in the indicated amount was actually transferred to the defendants' disposal, and the plaintiff did not provide any relevant, admissible evidence. Confirming the arguments of the plaintiff about the amount of lost income through the fault of the defendant, and the correspondence presented by the plaintiff has no evidentiary value for the claim, the court came to the conclusion that there was no basis for satisfying the claim.
December 4, 2019 – 9th Arbitration Court of Appeal
CrowdWiz OU submits an appeal against the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court.
On January 29, 2020 the Court of Appeal instance leaves the court decision unchanged, the complaint is not satisfied.
March 27, 2020 The Arbitration Court of the Moscow District
CrowdWiz OU submits a cassation appeal against the decision of the Arbitration Court of the City of Moscow, and against the decision of the Court of Appeal.
May 27, 2020 – The court leaves the ruling of the court of first instance and the ruling of the Court of Appeal unchanged, the cassation appeal is not satisfied
July 22, 2020 – The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
CrowdWiz OU submits a cassation appeal (presentation) to the Supreme Court.
September 17, 2020 – The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation issues a ruling on the refusal to transfer the cassation appeal for consideration in the court session of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.
It’s a game over for Micha and the gang. But it’s good news for the holders of WIZ. Now nothing stopping me from distributing the ETH among the holders. It will take a couple of months to prepare the smart contract, and make announcements, but now it will be done soon enough.