The United States has a long and proud history of litigation. While some would argue this right has been abused, there is no denying its importance in defining the American spirit. Now the mining rig manufacturer Bitmain has filed a lawsuit against an unidentified hacker who is suspected to have stolen from the company’s Binance account.

According to reports, a Bitmains has filed a lawsuit in the courts of Seattle, Washington to find and charge the defendant, “John Doe”. The company intends to recover their stolen BTC; though are uncertain at the moment who this person is. The court documents detail the parties involved as, the defendant, “John Doe”, the unknown hacker and the cryptocurrency trading platforms, Binance and Bittrex.

This case is being handled by the experienced litigation firm Perkins Coie LLP. They note that Bitmain lost 625 BTC on April 22, 2018. This was at a time when the valuation of BTC/USD stood at around the $8,900 mark. The case noted, “Before the unauthorized trades on April 22, 2018, Bitmain’s digital wallet held approximately 890 BTC — After the unauthorized trades, Bitmain’s digital wallet had approximately 265 BTC.”

Not only that, the fraudster then went on to cause mayhem in the market. It is believed that those funds were then used to artificially inflate the prices of some cryptocurrencies; especially decentraland (MANA). After this, the perpetrator went on to pump and dump other smaller cryptocurrency markets. After the smooth criminal had done so he proceeded with wash trades and pumping the coins with tiny market valuations. To enable this he, rather daringly, used both Bitmain’s account and his own Binance wallet. To cap it all off he sent the ill-gotten wealth to Bittrex ostensively to cause more damage to the markets. The documents further revealed: “By means of such conduct, John Doe furthered the intended fraud and obtained things of value, specifically Bitcoin and other digital assets, causing a loss to Bitmain exceeding $5,500,000.”

According to Bitmain’s lawyers, there is no doubt that “John” had clear knowledge about what he was doing when he illegally accessed a protected network with no due authority and then proceeded to defraud Bitmain’s custodial wallet. He has flagrantly broken a number of laws around international communications. After traveling all over the place the assets eventually found their way to an account held on Bittrex, the Seattle-based trading platform. Though the scheme could have been hatched and executed anywhere thanks to the internet; the location of the trading platform is reason enough to start proceedings in Washington state.

The law firm went on to delineate the plan of action stating,“[Doe’s] activities constitute a violation of the federal CFAA, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1030(a)(4).” The intentions of the lawsuit are two folds. Perkins Coie details that their client is only after damages that they are duly entitled to under the CFAA Act. They also want to ensure that such sneaky behaviour is rightfully punished and thus discouraged, in the future.

This sort of fraud and hacks are not altogether rare in this nascent industry. It is also not unheard of a “John Doe” or “Jane Doe” involved in a case as a fictitious defendant. These sort of lawsuit or subpoena are usually intended to use the power of law during the discovery process to help identify and bring to justice the aforementioned fictitious defendant. One hopes that such a brave stance is rewarded and the warning is enough to ward off others who might be planning similar stunts.

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