This is the first time in Japan legal history,” noted attorney Daniel Kelman, “that a liquidation has ever converted into a rehabilitation —it’s always the other way around after a rehab fails. This sort of also made legal history as well.”
Mr. Kelman is referring to a post today, detailing how the Tokyo District Court, charged with overseeing bankruptcy proceedings in the notorious Mt. Gox crypto scandal of nearly four years ago, seemingly changed how “enormous assets, which were to be distributed to Mt. Gox’s shareholders under the bankruptcy proceedings, will [now] be returned to creditors of Mt.Gox in civil rehabilitation proceedings. This is the creditors’ victory,” the blog detailed.
This might have been made possible, ironically, by bitcoin core’s (BTC) appreciating price since losses first surfaced. As Mr. Kelman explains, “That’s the main reason. At the initial creditor meetings at Tokyo District Court, the creditors demanded the trustee return bitcoins as bitcoins. Until then he was intent on selling them, but he agreed to look into it. The Coinlab case stalled everything for a couple years and creditors ended up in the 2017 bull market as a massive hodler, until the trustee started market selling in January this year, greatly contributing to the current bear market.”
Mt. Gox Creditors' Legal Victory: "Enormous Assets" to be Returned
Might Be a Chance for Those Who Have Yet to File Claim
The victory post was careful to emphasize how “this victory has not been realized yet. The victory will come to creditors when Mt. Gox makes payment to creditors and creditors actually receive such payment.” It will take at least three additional steps, today’s post insists, to get there: “promptly realize creditors’ rights […], [approval] at the creditors’ meeting, and [finally approval] by the court.”
For those who lost BTC in the Gox affair but haven’t yet filed a claim, Mr. Kelman muses “there might be another chance to file in rehab. Stay tuned. We are trying to avoid having to redo the whole claims process, which will cost money, take time and be at the expense of the creditors who timely filed. But things will still take a while as there is the Coinlab case to grapple with still.”
One possible side benefit might be the market fluctuations caused by the Gox Trustee dumping coins. Mr. Kelman noted in a Tweet, “Trustee won’t be market selling again any time soon. Our motion worked.”