The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court said that Bitfinex won’t have to continue turning the documents of its Tether use to the New York Attorney General’s office (OAG), for now.
Its a big win for cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex on the long going Tether stablecoin case as the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court puts a stay on the filing by attorney general Letitia James in April 2019. Bitfinex currently shares leadership with stablecoin coin issuer Tether.
James earlier accused Bitfinex of taking undue advantage of the partnership and borrowing $900 million USDT tokens without actually paying for it. In her complain, James wrote:
“Our investigation has determined that the operators of the ‘Bitfinex’ trading platform, who also control the ‘tether’ virtual currency, have engaged in a cover-up to hide the apparent loss of $850 million dollars of co-mingled client and corporate funds.”
However, the latest court decision comes as a huge breather for Bitfinex. The New York Supreme Court has announced that Bitfinex will no longer have to continue to turn over documents of its Tether use to the New York Attorney General’s office (OAG), for now. In the official document, the judges wrote:
“Upon reading and filing the papers with respect to the motion, and due deliberation having been had thereon, It is ordered that the motion is granted on condition the appeal is perfected on or before November 4, 2019, for the January 2020 Term”.
It means that this is just a temporary relief for Bitfinex. The crypto exchange still has a job left to convince the courts and make its appeal clearer. If it fails to do so, Bitfinex will have to continue to comply with any further investigation.
Note that the case involves three affiliate entities – Bitfinex, Tether, and their parent company iFinex. Speaking to Forbes, a spokesperson of the attorney general’s office said:
“The injunction that prohibits the movement of money between Tether and Bitfinex is still in place. We look forward to making our case in court as we seek to have Judge Cohen’s decision upheld and continue our investigation.”
While reciprocating in similar terms to the court’s judgment, an iFinex representative Stuart Hoegner said:
“We are gratified by the panel’s decision and we look forward to addressing the significant substantive issues before the appellate court.”
On the other hand, Bitfinex has continued further with the development of its IEO platform. The crypto exchange has recently announced the relaunching of its Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) platform Tokinex that will now become Bitfinex Token Sales.
K.IM, a P2P digital content and monetization blockchain network overseen by Kim Dotcom, will be the first project to go live next month, on Bitfinex Token Sales platform.
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