The Technion Israel Institute of Technology has filed a civil suit against a faculty member for allegedly establishing of a zero knowledge proof technology company and making use of the knowledge developed by him while working at the institute. The news was published by local media outlet Calcalist on April 22. The Technion has filed a suit against senior lecturer Prof. Eli Ben-Sasson with the Haifa District Court for allegedly violating the institute’s intellectual property rules. Per the lawsuit, Ben-Sasson founded a company dubbed Starkware with a doctoral student at the Technion, wherein "the intellectual property on which the company …

The Manhattan district attorney has indicted a group of individuals with allegedly selling drugs and laundering millions of dollars with bitcoin (BTC). The development was announced in a press release published on April 16. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., the United States Secret Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have indicted Chester Anderson and his criminal accomplices Jarrette Codd and Ronald Maccarty. The defendants allegedly operated stores on the dark web that sold and shipped “hundreds of thousands” of tablets of counterfeit drugs. Authorities seized 420,000 to 620,000 alprazolam tablets, 500 …

Canada's major cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX has been officially declared bankrupt, local media outlet CBC reported on April 8. Quadriga’s bankruptcy was reportedly approved today by Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Michael Wood, and follows the court monitor Ernst & Young’s (EY) recommendation that it should be declared bankrupt earlier this month. EY’s legal team then argued that the ongoing restructuring process for QuadrigaCX under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) should shift to an alternative process under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA). The ruling now grants EY enhanced investigative powers as a trustee under the BIA, which means the …

A Toronto judge has ruled an online drug dealer must pay his entire $1.4 million Bitcoin (BTC) holdings to the state in what is reportedly Canada’s largest ever forfeiture, local daily news outlet The Star reported April 3. Matthew Phan, who dealt in illegal narcotics online, had tried to convince law enforcement he had amassed his 281.41 BTC (worth around $1.4 million at press time) through other activities. The court had sought to claim the stash in February, with Phan appealing against the demands, a process he has now appeared to lose. According to The Star, Superior Court Justice Jane …

Mark Karpeles, former CEO of now-defunct Mt. Gox crypto exchange, has appealed his conviction on charges of manipulating data, The Associated Press (AP) reports on March 29. On March 15, Karpeles was acquitted of charges of embezzlement, but was found guilty of tampering with financial records, with the court stating that he manipulated data to harm his clients, betraying their trust and abusing his engineering skills. The Tokyo District Court reportedly found Karpeles guilty of combining his personal assets with those of the exchange in order to conceal the platform’s losses to hackers. Karpeles reportedly received a two and a …

Japanese prosecutors have reportedly dropped their appeal to the acquittal of former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles, The Mainichi reports on March 29. On March 15, the CEO of the now defunct Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange was acquitted of charges of embezzlement, but was found guilty of tampering with financial records. According to The Mainichi, prosecutors had initially sought to appeal the acquittal on embezzlement charges, but subsequently decided to let the decision stand. Karpeles was reportedly accused of taking 341 million yen ($3 million) of customers’ money in Mt. Gox accounts and spending it on a software developer and …

A Japanese court has acquitted a man who was accused of illicitly mining cryptocurrency by using the computing power of visitors to his website, Japan Today reported on March 27. The Yokohama District Court reportedly ordered to acquit a 31-year-old website designer, who allegedly ran Coinhive on his website to mine digital currency. The program allows the user to take advantage of website visitors’ spare computing power to mine cryptocurrencies — a practice known as cryptojacking. The accused reportedly stated that the program could not be considered a virus. Presiding Judge Toshihiro Homma reportedly said that the man’s actions "[do] …

Former operator of now-shuttered crypto exchange BTC-e, Russian national Alexander Vinnik, has appealed with a Greek court for his release or extradition to Russia, local media outlet Kathimerini reported on March 21. Vinnik — who is accused of fraud and laundering as much as $4 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) over the course of six years — has reportedly filed an appeal with Piraeus court for his release or extradition to Russia for humanitarian reasons. Prior to that, Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova asked both the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and Greek Justice Minister …

A new committee appointed by law firms Miller Thomson and Cox & Palmer will provide guidance in representing affected clients of major Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX. The development was announced in a court notice on March 19. In the filing, Miller Thompson reveals that it has established the Official Committee of Affected Users of now-shuttered QuadrigaCX, comprising of seven users affected by the shutdown of the trading platform following the sudden death of its co-founder, Gerald Cotten, last December. At the time, the exchange reported that it was not able to access its cold wallet holdings, as Cotten had purportedly …

An Israeli court has ruled in favor of a Bitcoin (BTC) mining company after a local bank closed its account over money laundering concerns. Israeli daily business news outlet Calcalist reported the development on March 17. Israminers, which sued Bank Igud (the Union Bank of Israel Ltd.) in May 2018, had faced problems with cash flow due to the bank blocking deposits which it said was against its terms. Following a lengthy appeals process, a Tel Aviv district court judge argued that the bank’s policy on cryptocurrency clients was too broad, and should not include automatic rejections. “I believe that …

Software engineer and Bitcoin (BTC) pioneer Jeff Garzik has been subpoenaed by a United States District Court in connection with the $4 billion lawsuit against Craig Wright, according to a document Garzik posted in a tweet on March 15. The suit was initially filed last February with the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida, with the family of David Kleiman — a computer scientist, whom many suspect to have been one of the developers of Bitcoin and blockchain technology — alleging that Wright stole up to 1.1 million BTC after he passed away. Following Kleiman’s death in …

French commercial court clerks will use a blockchain-based platform to record changes in companies’ legal status within the country. The development was revealed in an official announcement on March 14. The blockchain network was jointly developed by IBM and the National Council of Clerks (NCC) and will reportedly be deployed starting in 2019 by the clerks operating in commercial courts across France. The blockchain platform is built on the Hyperledger Fabric framework and aims to increase transparency and efficiency in legal transactions associated with the lifecycle of companies in the registry. Specifically, the solution will be used to record and …