BitGrail Saga Coming to Finale: Italian Authorities Seize Funds, Victims Reimbursement in Sight

BitGrail, the hacked Italian bitcoin exchange, which lost approximately $170 million worth of the cryptocurrency NANO, has faced seizure of its Bitcoin Holding by Italian authorities after the order passed by Court of Florence. The same was confirmed by BitGrail’s founder Francesco Firano tweeted.

Se non l’aveste capito, io non ho più accesso ai fondi depositati su bitgrail.

Sono stati sequestrati a seguito delle azioni legali promosse da Espen Enger.

È inutile che continuiate a contattarmi, ormai io non posso fare più niente.

Dovrete aspettare il tribunale.

— Francesco The Bomber (@bomberfrancy) June 16, 2018

BitGrails Hack trails and court proceedings

Earlier this year in February 2018, the Italian based exchange announced that due to a discrepancy in its wallet-maintenance code, over $170M worth of NANO (the formerly known “RaiBlocks” cryptocurrency) was stolen from user’s accounts. A number of lawsuits, user complaints and outrage, and pending criminal investigations followed shortly after. Ultimately in April, the Nano Foundation said that it has decided to provide help to the user who fell victim to the hack by sponsoring a legal fund.

The aim of this fund was to ensure that users who can not afford a legal battle be granted the chance to participate in legal proceedings against the Italian exchange. Espen Enger, along with Italian law firm Bonelli Erede, was appointed as the representative for the consortium of 1400 victims which sought help from Nano’s Legal Fund. Finally on June 5th, 2018 the Court of Florence ordered the seizure of all BTC contained in the Bitgrail wallets which were confirmed now by Francesco Firano.

Francesco revealed the seizures while arguing with various users on Twitter who believed that the exchanges inaction caused them the damage. Francesco also blamed the user lawsuits which led to exchange to file bankruptcy. He believed that if people would have supported him than filing lawsuits against him he would have been in a better position to help them.

Avrei potuto far prelevare se ci fosse stato buon senso e appoggio da parte di tutti.

Con tanti utenti che invece chiedono il fallimento via tribunale e avvocati, non è una strada percorribile.

L’errore è stato fatto da chi vi ha convinto che fare causa è la scelta giusta

— Francesco The Bomber (@bomberfrancy) June 16, 2018

You can’t be annoyed at us/people for being pissed dude. Some of us had a little of important money trusted with you, some had a lot.

You should have paused Nano as soon as noticed.

Then you should have never stopped withdrawals of bitcoin etc – This part was your fault..

— Lewdoe (@LookItsLewis) June 16, 2018

Maybe and maybe even the Xrb issue was devs fault..

What I’m saying is there was plenty of time for you to explicitly tell people to withdraw or remove the withdrawal freeze for other currencies and you didn’t. That parts on you and now people have lost more than just XRB.

— Lewdoe (@LookItsLewis) June 16, 2018

I’m not saying users acted appropriately and suing wasn’t great either..

Im saying is there a moment when you should have said “look, police are involved, not sure of the outcome, withdraw all available funds If you’re uncertain” instead you froze everything and removed choice.

— Lewdoe (@LookItsLewis) June 16, 2018

Also, read: Will $170 Million BitGrail Hack Mark the End of Nano?

What lies ahead for BitGrail victims: Reimbursement or a long wait

BitGrail has suspended all trading activities since the seizures of its holdings, and all links on their homepage link directly back to the announcement confirming authority involvement. In a small post circulated on their official news network, BitGrail confirmed the fund seizures by Italian Authorities, and updated the community and users notifying them that the site is undergoing “maintenance” with an unknown finish date undecided “pre-bankruptcy proceedings.”

While statements regarding BitGrail bankruptcy filings are not official or confirmed as of yet, it seems as if its fate has been sealed.

The news of seizures has upset many when law enforcement gets involved in this sort of a case its process of recovery is slow and sometimes, it may take months or even years to for recovery and reimbursement. While the community is displeased, Francesco in its above-mentioned tweet has shunned away from the responsibility by saying that “I cannot do anything”

Although time-consuming, there is still hope to many that the involvement of authority might help them get their money back and hope this stands true.

Will the legal course provide help in getting lost NANO, or fiat equivalency, back in their crypto wallets of the victims? Do let us know your view on the same.