Russian Law Firm Offers to Recover Stolen Mt. Gox Funds

The security breach that affected now-defunct cryptocurrency exchanges Mt. Gox has continued to have ripple effects on the crypto and financial markets till this day. While the breach initiated a cascade of events that led to the exchange’s eventual demise, many continue to make reference to this incident. 

The latest in the string of Mt. Gox-related events is a statement by Zheleznikov and Partners, a law firm based out of Moscow, in which it proposed initiating legal action that could potentially lead to the recovery of about 200,000 Bitcoin tokens lost in the infamous Mt. Gox hack. 

Earlier this week, lawyers from Zheleznikov and Partners sat down for a Q & A session with Andy Pag, a former journalist for news medium BBC. In the interview, the firm outlined its proposed plan to recover about 200,000 BTC on behalf of the people who suffered personal financial losses in the Mt. Gox hack. 

Considering the current Bitcoin trading price, such a recovery could see victims get up to $2 billion in total reimbursements. This, in the eyes of the law firm, will undoubtedly go a long way in making hack victims whole again. 

Specifically, the lawyers detailed that they could potentially get these Bitcoin tokens by taking legal action against the Russian nationals who reportedly saw cryptocurrency gains from the hack. 

On the issue of identifying some of the people who gained from the hack, the lawyers said that they currently don’t know anyone who fits into this category. However, they expressed a great deal of optimism that by co-operating with law enforcement agents, these people could be exposed. 

“We have strong reasons to believe that their identities will be revealed by the police investigation bringing existing information together, but we hope that once the criminal case starts, they will come forward quickly and offer to give compensation to victims.”

The firm also pointed out that this action could come at a potentially great cost, adding that it could end up charging creditors up to 75 percent of their reimbursements. However, they added that these charges would only be imposed if the stolen crypto assets are eventually recovered.

The entire proposal is a bit of a mixed bag. Being able to get compensations for the victims of the Mt. Gox attack will be a great thing, particularly because of the people who will be able to get their money back. 

It is also worth noting that success with this could bring up a new course of discussion; including, but not limited to, questions concerning how the victims of a hack that happened about half a decade ago haven’t been compensated, as well as what all investigators were doing all this time. 

However, given how much Zheleznikov and Partners is looking to get for its services (especially considering that the firm says it wants to make victims whole again), many people will most likely see this as not being worth it. 

Seventy-five percent of $2.06 billion is $1.54 billion. Really, who wins in this scenario? It certainly doesn’t seem like the victims.