The Chilean Free Competition Defense Court (TDLC) ruled in favor of the Latin American cryptocurrency exchange Bud after their checking accounts were closed by two major banks in the middle of a lawsuit related to a Ponzi scheme unrelated to the exchange.
The Chilean court denied petitions from two banks to keep Crypto Exchange Buda’s accounts closed
According to Diario Financiero, the TDLC ruled that Banco Itaú and BancoEstado should keep Buda’s bank accounts open, which were closed in 2018 during an investigation by a bogus company called Terra Finance that turned out to be a fraud.
The lawsuit filed by four victims of the system – cheated for a total of 100 million Chilean pesos (approximately $ 200,000) – said they were users of the crypto exchange. At the time, Banco Itaú backed their decision by claiming that Buda indirectly allowed the use of its platform for bogus companies like Terra Finance and did nothing to prevent it:
“Buda indirectly allows the use of the Itaú systems by other cryptocurrency exchanges with recognized risk, without being able to do anything about it.”
However, the Chilean court found such allegations not strong enough and issued the following order on the matter:
The new information does not undermine any serious presumption of the right claimed or the facts denounced in the lawsuit.
Litigation is still alive
Samuel Cañas, Buda’s chief legal officer, told the local media company:
The bank was unable to provide sufficient information to dismiss the serious presumption of acts threatening free competition, which the court had decided to grant the precautionary measure in favor of Buda.com.
But the litigation was not over yet, said Guillermo Torrealba, Buda’s CEO, as the lawyers told him there was 1 year left. Still, he noted that the exchange was “on the right track” as four out of five judges voted for Buda instead of the three votes they received in the final audience.
What do you think of the decision of the Chilean court? Let us know in the comments below.
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