Initial Coin Offering Lawsuits

Initial Coin Offering Lawsuits

 

Date Title/Docket Court Coin Name Description
4/4/2019 Silverman v. Payward, Inc. et al, Docket No. 1:19-cv-02997 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 4,
2019)		 U.S. District Court
Southern District of New York		 N/A In a lawsuit over Kraken’s alleged breach of an employment agreement, the former head of institutional sales and trading for Kraken alleged that he engaged in cryptocurrency trading for Kraken in New York in April-December 2017, with trading desk profits during that period totaling approximately $19 million.
The claim that Kraken conducted cryptocurrency trading in New York may undermine the claims of the company and its CEO in a 2015 blog post and an April 2018 tweet that it had discontinued service in New York in 2015 to avoid the requirement to obtain a New York Bitlicense.
12/31/2018 Kaplan v. Compcoin LLC et al v. Harris et al, Docket No. 1:18- cv-07453 (E.D.N.Y. Dec. 31, 2018) U.S. District Court
Eastern District of New York		 COMPCOIN  

An individual plaintiff accused Compcoin LLC, Fintech Investment Group Inc., and four of their executives of engaging in securities fraud when the solicited investments in an unregistered ICO selling COMPCOIN, which was claimed to represent trading power on an artificial intelligence network trading in foreign exchange markets.
11/1/2018 Beranger et al v. Harris et al, Docket No. 1:18-cv-05054 (N.D. Ga. Nov. 1, 2018) U.S. District Court
Northern District of Georgia		 FLiK  

Plaintiffs residing in the United States, France, South Africa, the Netherlands, Russia, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Greece sued Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr. (the rapper and actor known as “T.. The plaintiffs alleged violation of Section 12(a) and Section 15(a) of the Securities Act and violation of the Georgia Uniform Securities Act against
T.I. and Felton.
9/20/2018 Blockchain U.S. District BCIO  

Blockchain Luxembourg S.A. and Blockchain
Luxembourg S.A. et al
v. Paymium, SAS a/k/a Blockchain.io et al, Docket No. 1:18- cv-08612 (S.D.N.Y. 20, 2018)		 Court
Southern District of New York		  

(US), Inc. filed a complaint against Paymium and its founder Pierre Noizat for trademark infringement and unfair competition, to prevent Paymium from conducting an ICO branded as BLOCKCHAIN.IO and to recover damages from Paymium for damage to its BLOCKCHAIN trademark.
9/12/2018 Local Ventures & Investments, LLC et al
v. Open Foundation et al, Docket No. 3:18- cv-05581 (N.D. Cal. Sep. 12, 2018)		 U.S. District Court
Northern District of California		 OPEN  

The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Open Foundation dba Open Platform, Angud Sangha, Clear Technologies Software, Inc., and Appclarity Inc. for copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, and the cash value equivalent of 2.54% of the total supply of Open’s tokens on the basis of promissory estoppel, quasi-contract/unjust enrichment, and quantum meruit, after Open Foundation conducted an ICO that raised approximately $23 million with the assistance of the plaintiffs and allegedly did not distribute promised tokens and cash to the plaintiffs.
7/20/2018 www.trustscience.com Inc. v. Bloom Limited et al, Docket No.
6:18-cv-01174		 Middle District of Florida
Magistrate Judge Daniel C. Irick		 Bloom (BLT) Trust Science sued Bloom Limited for patent infringement in the development of the Bloom platform financed by the Bloom (BLT) token sale, which Trust Science further alleged issued a security under the Howey test.
9/11/2017 R3 Holdco LLC vs. Ripple Labs Inc. and XRP II, Docket No. 655781/2017 New York Superior Court
Judge Eileen Bransten		 XRP The R3 consortium filed a complaint in New York Superior Court against Ripple over a September 2016 option agreement for 5 billion XRP which Ripple terminated.
9/8/2017 R3 Holdco LLC vs. Ripple Labs, Inc. and XRP II, LLC, Docket No. 2017-0652 Delaware Chancery Court
Judge Joseph R. Slights III		 XRP  

The R3 consortium also filed its lawsuit against Ripple in Delaware Chancery Court. The Delaware Chancery Court dismissed the complaint in a bench ruling on October 13, 2017 for lack of personal jurisdiction over XRP II,  LLC, a New York LLC.
9/8/2017
Ripple Labs Inc., et al vs. R3 LRC LLC, etal, Case Number CGC17561205 Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco XRP Ripple filed its own lawsuit against R3 in Superior Court of California, claiming that R3 broke the September 2016 option agreement.