Two law firms in the United States– Silver Miller and Levi Korsinsky– have filed a class action lawsuit against the controversial Italian cryptocurrency exchange Bitgrail and the developers of the altcoin Nano.
All the firms are representing James Fabian, who bought into Nano, and “all other persons similarly situated.”
The lawsuit alleges that Nano and key members of its core team violated federal securities laws. The complaint further alleges that the developers, with an intention to push Nano into an ideal market of investors, recklessly directed investors to open accounts and place their assets with an unknown, and severely troubled, Italian cryptocurrency exchange.
In addition, the complaint further alleges Nano and its core team for engaging in an unregistered offering and sale of securities that violated multiple federal securities laws in the United States.
In early 2018, $170 million worth of Nano coins suddenly disappeared from Bitgrail. Though information of the theft were unclear initially, many tech-savvy investors accused the exchange of not fixing some major known vulnerabilities. Later, the investors’ outrage turned very serious and the founder of the exchange, Francesco “The Bomber” Firano, was accused of theft, fraud, and even faces death threats on social media.
The exchange’s handle of the hack also remained very controversial as it did not think about itself to be responsible for the theft or obligated to return the stolen money. Moreover, after showcasing a plan to reimburse customers “voluntarily” the exchange retracted it saying that it has no money to repay the victims.