Anthony Motto insists that the Court should certify a deposit class including all former clients of MtGox who “walked into a trap” by wiring money into the Exchange’s account at Mizuho Bank.

Anthony Motto, a former customer of now-defunct bitcoin exchange MtGox, has insisted that the Court should certify a Deposit Class, including all clients of the Exchange who wired money into its account at Mizuho Bank. Let’s recall that Motto targets Mizuho Bank over transactional difficulties stemming from the bank’s controversial relationship with MtGox.

According to the plaintiff, the investors who wired money into Mt. Gox’s account at Mizuho Bank after June 21, 2013, walked into a trap: their money could go into Mt. Gox’s account at Mizuho, but it could never leave. And by virtue of Mizuho’s common conduct, the trap was the same for all class members, the plaintiff alleges. In contrast, Mizuho argues that the trap was not the same for all alleged members of the class and that such a deposit class should not be certified.

On March 22, 2018, Anthony Motto filed his opposition to Mizuho’s claims with the Illinois Northern District Court. Motto argues that the Court should certify the proposed Deposit Class and should appoint Motto to represent the class.

Motto notes that the Class is appropriately defined. In a fraud case, the key is isolating the individuals who were exposed to the alleged misrepresentation. And Mizuho does not contest that each member of the proposed class was exposed to the misrepresentations at issue: Mizuho’s failure to disclose its refusal to honor withdrawal requests.

Also, Motto says that Mizuho has not demonstrated that MtGox’s clients were not concerned of the withdrawal issues. According to the plaintiff, it makes little sense to conclude that withdrawal functionality is of no concern to the individuals, even if it is not top of mind when deciding to invest. For Mizuho to claim that entire populations of bitcoin holders didn’t care about the ability to make timely cash withdrawals is just not credible.

According to the allegations in the plaintiffs’ complaint, Bitcoin investors were informed on June 21, 2013, of a “temporary hiatus” in the USD withdrawals from Mt. Gox and then told on July 4th that withdrawals had resumed.

Mt. Gox’s customers kept trading on the Exchange and relied on Mt. Gox’s promise that it would hold funds on behalf of its customers. When thousands of individuals submitted requests to withdraw their fiat currencies from Mt. Gox’s account at Mizuho, Mt. Gox was able to offer a only a handful of investors relief, though only after extended delay and payment of an increased fee. The majority of them, however, were left high and dry.

On February 7, 2014, Mt. Gox announced a “temporary suspension”. Two and half weeks later, the Exchange collapsed.

Motto has moved the Court to certify a class of all individuals in the United States who wired fiat currency to Mt. Gox’s bank account at Mizuho between June 20, 2013, and February 24, 2014 (the “Deposit Class”).