Japan’s Mizuho Bank gets dragged into Mt. Gox lawsuit

Late this week, Canadian Bitcoin holders filed a class-action suit against defunct online Bitcoin exchange MtGox. The suit named MtGox, its affiliates, and its two major shareholders, Mark Karpeles and Jed McCaleb, as well as Japan’s second largest bank, Mizuho Bank, where MtGox kept an account. In the US, a class-action suit that was filed in late February was amended late Friday afternoon to name another primary plaintiff as well as several new defendants, including “John Doe defendants” and Mizuho Bank. 

One of Japan’s largest lenders, Mizuho Bank Ltd, has became ensnared in the U.S. legal fallout from the collapse Mt. Gox, the leading bitcoin exchange that lost more than $400 million of customers’ digital currency. The Japanese bank was added as a defendant on Friday to an existing lawsuit against Mt. Gox for allegedly aiding in a fraud by providing banking services to the exchange. Mizuho held non-bitcoin currency on behalf of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox and its customers, according to the amended complaint by Gregory Greene, an Illinois resident who has said he lost $25,000 when Mt. Gox shut down last month. Mt. Gox said in February it may have lost 750,000 of its customers’ bitcoins in a hacking attack and filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo. Customers have suspected a massive fraud.