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Key facts:
A judicial process involving two exchange houses popular in Brazil: NegocieCoins and TemBTC.The company should be approximately $ 638 million to investors and customers, according to the administrator of the court.In the month of may of 2019 began the odyssey, without any of the customers of Group Bitcoin Bank warned. The company ceased to operate normally, prohibiting the withdrawal of coins in fiat and bitcoins. Deposits not processed, and some began to fear the worst.The customers had used their life savings, family income, and even mortgage their homes to invest in cryptocurrencies under the tutelage of the company of Claudio Oliveira, known in Brazil as the “king of bitcoin”.No one could foresee that months after the archivarían several lawsuits for fraud and a proceeding to declare the bankruptcy of the Group Bitcoin Bank (GBB). Is that today, in the Court of Paraná, several customers of GBB ask for explanations to Oliveira for the wrongful retention of his money. According to a report by the judicial administrator in this case, EXM Partners, the company can owe up to 638 million dollars to its creditors.90% of the debt was acquired with customers of the group, who invested in the two houses of change, NegocieCoins and TemBTC, belonging to the corporate group. The percentage translates into approximately 6.445 people and law firms, which do not have access to your money for almost nine months. However, Group policy, Bitcoin Bank ensures that must a lot less money, calculating that their liabilities represent us $ 119 million americans.
A panorama uncertain
The inconsistencies between the documents of GBB and the administrator EXM Partners have raised suspicion in the community. Those affected by the debacle have expressed their disagreement in social networks, even to denounce the situation before Sergio Mouro, minister of Justice and Public Security.The Twitter user, Rodrigo França, was one of the first to order a thorough investigation of the case, informing them that there were many affected. His tweet generated an avalanche of claims from other customers of the Group Bitcoin Bank, who are also upset with the situation, labeling it as fraud or money laundering.
@SF_Moro Mr. Sergio Mouro venho ask through desse, apply for sua atenção um case that is acontecendo em Curitiba envolveu people do país inteiro, uma company called GBB is preferably from dinheiro of investors to 4 months, eu fui um dos do research, and not got out— Rodrigo França (@Rodrigo86068790) September 15, 2019
The cause of the discord is not only the lack of money in itself —compelling reason to inflame tempers, but also a lack of communication and lack of transparency of the Group Bitcoin Bank to provide information on the situation. The company announced in mid-October that it had liquidity problems, a circumstance that makes it difficult for the withdrawal of money in the platform. However, he said that in a few months normalizarían activities, a promise that has yet to be fulfilled.Claudio Oliveira, in an interview to the daily Value of Brazil, said that the company saw in a hardship because of a fraud perpetrated by several customers. The entrepreneur explained that due to a vulnerability in the security system, a group of users has doubled its balance and now it was impossible for them to return the money to the other customers. However, Oliveira never presented evidence about this complaint neither specified how much was the money stolen by these alleged hackers.Unexpectedly, at the end of the year 2019, the Group Bitcoin Bank declared bankruptcy, thus changing the course of this story, which is now in courts. The company introduced a resource of judicial recovery before the authorities of Paraná, with the objective of covering the debt that he owes with their creditors.Although it has been committed at the trial level, the board has not submitted a detailed report on the current situation of the company. The movements of cryptocurrencies made in the past year, along with withdrawals of money carried out by GBB, have also not been shown. In conjunction with the transmission of erroneous information on their liabilities, the lack of verifiable data on the activities of the company has activated all the alarms in the sector.Joao Paulo Godri, a lawyer involved in this case, stressed that the discrepancies in the documentation are not serious and occur commonly at the start of the trials. In this sense, it recommended that those affected do not take anything for granted and expect to submit new evidence at the trial.
The victims in all of Brazil
In the present complaints have been filed for fraud against the Group Bitcoin Bank in seven states of Brazil. The most dramatic of this case is not the fall of GBB, but the stories behind each one of those affected. “Be ashamed to pay to their customers,” says a Twitter user identified as Eduardo Sampaio.
TENHAM VERGONHA NA CARA!!!
Is empenhem em PAY CUSTOMERS ao invés is to promote com trivia
ISSO É UM SLEEP AND TOTAL LACK OF RESPECT— Eduardo Sampaio (@Eduardo_Sampaio) August 20, 2019
Messages such as Sampaio proliferate in networks, above all in the official accounts of the exchange houses NegocieCoins and TemBTC. Most of the users express their discomfort with the launch of new products of the Group Bitcoin Bank, who have wanted to renew their image through the company Zater Capital and your daily BreakChain.The outrage is evident in reports such as that of Diego Gomes, who says that he and his partners invested money in the platform and are now in danger of losing your home. Beyond being another company in bankruptcy, the history of the Group Bitcoin Bank has become a tragedy for hundreds of brazilian households.
@SF_Moro eu botei meu dinheiro e sócios that pegaram dinheiro any e agora so much of losing HOME, mas agora dono desse group of ladões GBB estão nos enrolando com deadlines infinite. WE will form basis ??????— Diego Gomes (@DiegoGo27903948) September 16, 2019
BGG also owe money to the prestigious law firm of Nelson Wilians & Advogados Associados. The firm represented mid-2019, defending them from accusations of fraud. However, before the end of the year dropped the case, adding to the company an expenditure of $ us 270,000 for their services. The company also has debts with Amazon, according to the latest report of the administrator EXM Partners, for a lack of payment amounting to 160,000 u.s. dollars.Group Bitcoin Bank should be three months salary to active employees and to laid-off. By the beginning of 2019 had a total of 200 employees, almost all located in a luxurious building in the city of Curitiba, capital of Paraná state, south of Brazil. But now the company only has 30 active employees that are still working without receiving any wage whatsoever. The internal debt that has BGG is estimated above $ 250,000, according to local newspapers.
Do you abdicated king or destronaron?
One of the figures most enigmatic of this case is without a doubt Claudio Oliveira. Known by many as the “king of bitcoin”, after the presenter and journalist, Amaury Jr. was baptized with this name, became an icon in the world of cryptocurrencies in Brazil.Oliveira is a kind of living legend, with about 25,000 bitcoins in their assets and an ambitious project that planned to put on the market of the cryptocurrencies in the top of the brazilian economy. The Group Bitcoin Bank, founded in the year 2017, it was synonymous with success and prestige. The company owned several flats in the building Curitiba Trade Center, one of the centers more sophisticated of Paraná. Also, were the owners of an office in Sao Paulo, according to its website.A group of properties validated the ascent of this startup in the domestic market. The dream of Oliveira did not last long. Today, then declare your company bankrupt, their properties and belongings of luxury have been frozen by the authorities until further notice.The enormous debt with their clientele has been medrando the reputation of the now “exrey of bitcoin”, and make complex their public relations. Oliveira tries to renew the image of the Group Bitcoin Bank catapulting one of his companies still solvent, Zater Capital. But this new attempt only earned him the public ridicule to the middle of January 2020, given that all the web pages of the active companies were hacked. Those involved in the attack left a clear message: “returns the money of your customers.”Even more serious, the customers have not remained only in complaints or protests. In December 2019, Claudio Oliveira denounced the abduction of his mother and sister-in-law to the brazilian authorities. The captors demanded a payment in bitcoins for the liberation of women, which was never realized because they were rescued by the police.With the passing of the days it was confirmed that one of the parties involved was a client of one of the exchange houses in GBB, which I had decided to take justice by their hands. The affected, and now alleged kidnapper, would have planned the attack with the aim of recovering their money. A situation that reveals how dramatic is the case of the Group Bitcoin Bank and how desperate they are some of the clients to recover the money lost.