Greene v. Mizuho Bank, Ltd.

169 F. Supp. 3d 855, 2016 WL 946921, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32020
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMarch 14, 2016
Docket14 C 1437
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 169 F. Supp. 3d 855 (Greene v. Mizuho Bank, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greene v. Mizuho Bank, Ltd., 169 F. Supp. 3d 855, 2016 WL 946921, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32020 (N.D. Ill. 2016).

Opinion

Memorandum Opinion and Order

Gary Feinerman, United States District Judge

This putative class action, brought by Illinois resident Gregory Greene and California resident Joseph Lack, seeks to hold Mizuho Bank, Ltd. and Mark Karpeles liable for financial losses arising from the demise of the Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange. Doc. 146. Plaintiffs bring only state law claims, and subject matter jurisdiction lies under the Class Action Fairness Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d). Mizuho has moved to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(2) for lack of personal jurisdiction. Doc. 148. The motion is denied, but the denial is conditioned on putative class counsel replacing Greene with a named plaintiff from Illinois who is a member of the Deposit Subclass (of which more later). If a substitute named plaintiff is not named by April 4, 2015, this suit will be transferred to the Central District of California, where Lack resides and, as shown below, where Mizuho is subject to personal jurisdiction.

Background

On a Rule 12(b)(2) motion, the relevant background includes the complaint’s well-pleaded allegations and the evidentiary materials submitted by both sides. No party has requested an evidentiary hearing, so the court must accept Plaintiffs’ factual averments and resolve all genuine factual disputes in Plaintiffs’ favor. See Felland v. Clifton, 682 F.3d 665, 672 (7th Cir.2012) (“[W]here, as here, the issue [of personal [858]*858jurisdiction] is raised on a motion to dismiss, the plaintiff need only make a prima facie showing of jurisdictional facts. We therefore accept as true all well-pleaded facts alleged in the complaint and resolve any factual disputes in ... in favor of the plaintiff.”) (citation omitted); Purdue Research Found. v. Sanofi-Synthelabo, S.A., 338 F.3d 773, 782-83 (7th Cir.2003). The court must also consider “documents attached to the complaint, documents that are critical to the complaint and referred to in it, and information that is subject to proper judicial notice,” along with additional facts set forth in Plaintiffs’ brief opposing dismissal, so long as those facts “are consistent with the pleadings.” Phillips v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 714 F.3d 1017, 1020 (7th Cir.2013) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Defender Sec. Co. v. First Mercury Ins. Co., 803 F.3d 327, 335 (7th Cir.2015). The facts are set forth as favorably to Plaintiffs as those materials allow. See Meade v. Moraine Valley Cmty. Coll., 770 F.3d 680, 682 (7th Cir.2014). In so doing, the court does not vouch for the accuracy of those facts. See Jay E. Hayden Found. v. First Neighbor Bank, N.A., 610 F.3d 382, 384 (7th Cir.2010).

Bitcoin is a digital payment system, and bitcoins are the system’s unit of account. See Beyond Silk Road: Potential Risks, Threats and Promises of Virtual Currencies: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. & Governmental Affairs, 113th Cong. 3-4 (2013) (statement of Jennifer Shasky Calvery), https://perma.cc/2 TFX-6BCQ (noting that the Treasury Department classifies Bitcoin as a “decentralized virtual currency”). Bitcoins can be bought and sold on exchanges.

Prior to its collapse and bankruptcy, Mt. Gox was a Bitcoin exchange based in Tokyo, Japan. Doc. 146 at ¶¶ 11, 40. Karpeles was Mt. Gox’s President, CEO, and majority shareholder. Id. at ¶¶ 6, 17. To fund their activities on the exchange, Mt. Gox users could either (1) transfer bitcoins directly into their accounts at Mt. Gox or (2) wire fiat currency (government-issued money, like dollars and euros), to Mizuho Bank, which would deposit the money into a bank account it held on behalf of Mt. Gox. Id. at ¶¶ 14, 23. Mizuho, which is headquartered in Tokyo, earned service fees from processing those wire deposits. Id. at ¶¶ 7, 16. To withdraw fiat currency, a Mt. Gox user would make a request through her account at Mt. Gox, which would send the request, along with the user’s banking details, to Mizuho, which in turn would transfer the requested amount to the user’s bank. Id. at ¶ 24.

Greene, an Illinois resident, opened a Mt. Gox account in 2012 and began trading and selling bitcoins. Id. at ¶¶4, 46. For over a year, Greene traded bitcoins without problem. Id. at ¶¶ 47-49. In November 2013, Greene contacted Mt. Gox customer service after experiencing delays with his transactions. Id. at ¶ 49.

Unbeknownst to Greene, Mt. Gox had for several months been under pressure on two fronts. First, exploiting security vulnerabilities that dated from as early as 2011, Karpeles was stealing bitcoins belonging to Mt. Gox users. Id. at ¶¶ 19-21. Second, and of particular relevance here, Mizuho was attempting to end its relationship with Mt. Gox. Id. at ¶¶ 26-27 (citing Takashi Mochizuki et al., “Recording Shows Mizuho Pushed to End Dealings with Mt. Gox,” Wall St. J., Mar. 5, 2014, https://perma.cc/8YDX-V95S). Concerned about a reported U.S. investigation into money laundering on Mt. Gox and wary of potential legal liability or reputational harm, Mizuho pressed Karpeles to close the Mt: Gox bank account at Mizuho. Doc. 146 at ¶¶ 27-28. When Karpeles refused, Mizuho unilaterally took several measures designed to make the banking relationship [859]*859untenable for Mt. Gox. Id. at ¶¶ 28-29, 31. Those measures included limiting the number and amount of Mt. Gox customer withdrawals and refusing to process some wire transfers. Id. at ¶¶ 28-29, 31.

By mid-2013, Mizuho was no longer processing any international wire withdrawals for Mt. Gox, meaning that Mt. Gox users who had wired fíat currency to Mizuho for deposit in Mt. Gox’s bank account could not withdraw their money. Id. at ¶¶ 29, 31. Mizuho’s qualms about handling Mt. Gox’s business did not extend, however, to receiving fíat currency from Mt. Gox users for deposit into the Mt. Gox account. Even as it limited and then barred withdrawals, Mizuho continued to accept deposits from Mt. Gox users, earning revenue from the associated service fees. Id. at ¶¶ 31-32. Mizuho prohibited Mt. Gox from disclosing that the withdrawal difficulties were attributable to Mizuho or that Mizuho wanted to terminate its relationship with Mt. Gox. Id. at ¶¶ 36, 123, 125. Mizuho knew that if Mt. Gox’s members learned of its prohibition on withdrawals of fiat currency from Mt. Gox’s Mizuho account, members would stop making deposits and Mizuho would stop collecting the associated fees. Id. at ¶ 122.

Lack, a California resident, did not join Mt. Gox until January 22, 2014, about six months after Mizuho had barred all withdrawals from its Mt. Gox account. Id. at ¶ 56. He wired $40,000 in fiat currency from his local Wells Fargo branch to Mizu-ho on February 3, 2014, and Mizuho accepted the transfer. Id. at ¶¶ 57, 65. On the wire transfer instructions, Lack listed his individual Mt.

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169 F. Supp. 3d 855, 2016 WL 946921, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32020, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greene-v-mizuho-bank-ltd-ilnd-2016.