More defendants dismissed from BitConnect class-action
The BitConnect class-action isn’t going to well, following dismissal of the second amended complaint and several defendants.
The November 20th order strikes the remainder of the second amended complaint, which was filed on September 13th.
Defendants Glenn Arcaro and Ryan Maasen were dismissed from the case back in September.
Judge Middlebrooks has also now dismissed defendants Joshua Jeppesen, Craig Grant, Nicholoa Trovato (aka CryptoNick), owing to failure of service.
It was argued that Jeppesen, Grant and Trovato ‘are believed to have fled their homes to escape criminal prosecution’, however this did not sway the court.
Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, plaintiffs have ninety days to serve defendants. Filing an amended complaint does not reset the ninety day counter.
The remainder of the defendants in the BitConnect class-action are mostly foreign defendants.
Plaintiffs have been given until December 5th to file a third-amended complaint, with strict instructions it is ‘shall not include any additional parties and/or allegations’.
Personally I’m not a fan of parallel civil lawsuits when it comes to MLM scams we know are under investigation.
That said the amount of time that has passed since we became aware BitConnect and its promoters were under investigation is taxing.
I anticipate the BitConnect class-action being abandoned entirely at some point.
Whether US regulators ever get around to holding the scammers behind BitConnect accountable remains to be seen.
The law firms handling the BitConnect class-action appear to be the same as in OneCoin class-action (Silver Miller and Levi & Korsinsky). They are facing very much the same problems with OneCoin.
I hope they know what they are doing because it doesn’t look too good.
It even crossed my mind that perhaps the class-action law firms add as many defendants as possible with no regard how realistic it’s to service them, because it’s somehow related how much they can suck money from the plaintiffs. But perhaps this is too cynical.