Bitfinex files discovery application in an attempt to recover frozen funds

Bitfinex on Oct 18, 2019, filed a discovery application in the Central District of Southern California District Court hoping to recover its $880 Million funds held at the various frozen accounts of Global Trade Solutions AG, doing business as Crypto Capital.

Discovery is a pre-trial procedure in a lawsuit in which each party, through the law of civil procedure, can obtain evidence from the other party or parties by means of discovery devices such as interrogatories, requests for production of documents, requests for admissions and depositions.

Crypto Capital acted as a payment processor for Bitfinex and since Dec 2018 its bank accounts in Poland, Portugal, UK and U.S. which held Bitfinex funds have been seized or frozen by the government due to money-laundering investigation.

Meanwhile, to cover up the loss of Bitfinex’s customer funds, Bitfinex used funds from Tether’s reserve without disclosing to customers for which they are under investigation by the New York Attorney General’s Office.

As per the court filing, Bitfinex believes that one of the frozen accounts – G.T.S. Resources Limited, a TCA Bancorp’s customer possesses more than $306 million of Bitfinex funds. G.T.S. Resources Limited was discovered to be wholly owned by Reginald Fowler who was recently indicted by the U.S Department of Justice for alleged bank fraud charges and operating an unlicensed money transmission business.

Further, $355 Million is believed to be held in Bank Spoldzielczy in Poland and $218 Million in three separate Portuguese banks – Caixa geral de depositos, S.A., Bankinter, S.A. and Banco portugues de investimentos.

Bitfinex seeks with this filing to obtain necessary information and documents from all entities so as to prove ownership and entitlement of the funds held in frozen accounts.