[卡尔]数字货币集团反击 NYAG 诉讼

风险投资公司数字货币集团已提出动议，驳回纽约总检察长办公室对其提起的刑事诉讼。

DCG 和 NYAG 之间的法律战已经持续了几个月，并且直接与另外两家著名的加密货币公司之间的纠纷纠缠在一起：Genesis（现已解散的经纪公司）和 Gemini（交易所和银行）。

这些团体多年来一直卷入一系列纠纷，涉及关系的急剧变化和严重的欺诈指控。

整个情况中一个特别相关的转折是，破产的 Genesis 一直是实力雄厚的 DCG 的子公司，DCG 管理着价值数十亿美元的资产，并将 ETF 发行商 Grayscale 视为另一家子公司。

换句话说，弄清楚这里涉及的所有不同参与者的背景是一项相当重要的任务，特别是考虑到当前存在的令人担忧的环境。

总检察长的诉讼不仅是针对 DCG、Genesis 和 Gemini 的同等程度的诉讼，而且 Genesis 和 Gemini 还在与此无关的民事诉讼中对峙。

NYAG 于 2023 年 10 月指控这些公司集体诈骗投资者超过 10 亿美元，相互指责造成了混乱的氛围。

首先，最近在法庭文件中发现的有关此次解雇的披露是一个很好的地方。

具体来说，今年 3 月的法庭文件已公开表明 Genesis 和 Gemini 考虑在 2022 年进行合并。

2022 年，DCG 首席执行官巴里·希尔伯特 (Barry Silbert) 在午餐时与 Gemini 联合创始人卡梅伦·文克莱沃斯 (Cameron Winklevoss) 进行了一次会面，讨论了将两个公司实体合并在一起的一些动机和后勤问题。

当时，Genesis 面临破产的严重危险，其与 Gemini 的实质性合作关系意味着其后果可能会损害另一家公司的业务。

作为 Gemini Earn 计划的一部分，Gemini 向 Genesis 提供了大量资金，但 Genesis 已经损失了该计划。

对冲基金三箭资本 (Three Arrows Capital) 在 FTX 崩溃后破产时负责管理这笔资金，Genesis 面临着 10 亿美元的困境。

至于这些损失资金的原始来源，NYAG 指控这些公司从投资者那里骗取了这笔钱。

At the meeting, Silbert made the sales pitch that the two firms should combine, and that they “would be a juggernaut and would be competitive with Coinbase and FTX”. He added that, even if Genesis and Gemini couldn’t reach an agreement on these terms, “there is a ton more Gemini and Genesis can do together and the two companies should be leaning in together, not pulling apart”. Although Winklevoss was allegedly “intrigued” by the proposed deal, it did not happen. Frictions, alongside Genesis’ declaration of bankruptcy, arose in the immediate aftermath.

A particular point of friction is found in the aforementioned Gemini Earn partnership, which made headlines this February when Genesis won a court ruling against Gemini. Essentially, Genesis owned a tranche of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares that were promised to Gemini as collateral for an exchange of money between the two companies, but Genesis declared bankruptcy before the shares could actually change hands. Since GBTC is unique among the Bitcoin spot ETFs as a pre-existing fund that was converted into an ETF, this tranche of shares had ballooned by early 2024 to be worth more than $1.2B. DCG’s ownership of both Grayscale and Genesis put an extra complication over the issue. Gemini objected to Genesis’ legal right to sell the shares it was promised years prior, and this began a lengthy civil suit.

Although the issue was resolved through a series of settlements that allowed Genesis to make the sale and kept both it and Gemini from admitting culpability, the NYAG still filed a complaint alleging that the parties involved were all jointly guilty of substantial fraud. There were more than a billion dollars missing, and the attorney general’s office was growing tired of the mutual recriminations between the relevant parties. Even if Genesis could make enough money from their sale to recoup their investors, that still doesn’t address the issue of criminal activity. A particular illustration of the hostile environment came up when DCG, Genesis’ parent company, disputed Genesis’ own settlement with the NYAG.

So, this brings us to the present day. On March 7, Silbert and DCG filed a motion to dismiss the attorney general’s suit, claiming that the allegations against these companies were entirely baseless. In the motion, DCG’s legal team claimed that “The allegations against DCG in this case are a thin web of baseless innuendo, blatant mischaracterizations and unsupported conclusory statements. In search of a headline-worthy scapegoat for losses caused by others, the OAG [Office of the Attorney General] wrongfully seeks to portray DCG’s good-faith support of a subsidiary as participating in fraud”. They specifically claim that DCG acted in good faith by funneling money towards Genesis after the Three Arrows collapse, investing “hundreds of millions of dollars of additional capital into its subsidiary during the months leading up to its bankruptcy, even though DCG had no obligation to do so”. The attorney general took a different view, that DCG’s net contributions conceal a large drain of Genesis’ money at one crucial moment: DCG took their money back, Genesis declared a “liquidity crunch” and did not allow users to withdraw their crypto, Genesis went bankrupt immediately. The burden of proof is on them, however, to demonstrate that this was a deliberate fraud tactic.

As of yet, there is no way of knowing what a judge will think of DCG’s proposed defense or motion to dismiss, or if a settlement is feasible in the event that the motion to dismiss is denied. However, one unambiguously good sign has come out of the morass: Gemini announced its plans to fully reimburse the allegedly defrauded users of the Gemini Earn partnership with assets in kind. In other words, these users had Bitcoin stolen from them in 2022, and Gemini has made commitments to pay them back, accounting for Bitcoin’s price jump since then. This has tacked on another $700M to the price tag of reimbursing over $1B in assets, and is a clear sign of confidence from the company.

If nothing else, this decision to reimburse users like this is an impressive display of sincerity and good intentions from Gemini. Gemini is named as a co-defendant on all the legal documents submitted by Silbert’s legal team about the NYAG suit, and would also benefit greatly from seeing the suit dismissed. This gesture of good faith might not be enough to clear the air for DCG and Genesis, but it certainly couldn’t hurt anyone’s chances of escaping the whole fiasco without a criminal conviction. Although Gemini failed to halt Genesis’ attempt at getting the money from GBTC sales, Gemini is still a successful and prominent exchange. Apparently, it was able to float a compensation of this size without relying on the GBTC tranche.

任何人都猜测该诉讼在未来几个月将如何进行。

当 NYAG 在第一轮和解后首次提出申诉时，显然检察官已经厌倦了这些前商业伙伴的尖刻态度。

尽管如此，Gemini 的赔偿计划肯定会在很大程度上证明他们为用户做正确的事的意图。

如果不出意外的话，这表明他们正在积极主动地认真对待这个问题。

我们必须仔细观察事态的发展，但很明显，迄今为止所表现出的相互厌恶和卑鄙行为并没有得到回报。

更广泛的数字资产领域周期性地充斥着不稳定的企业和彻头彻尾的骗局，但最终它们都分崩离析。

另一方面，比特币的成功是合法的。

当尘埃落定时，最大的赢家实际上可能是被骗的用户，由于比特币自身的实力，他们的预期支出将增加近一倍。

与这些收益相比，很难想象骗局的效果会更好。

热点：数字货币 卡尔 反击 数字 货币