Bithumb’s previous partner in Thailand has filed a civil lawsuit against the Hong Kong subsidiary of the South Korean crypto exchange group for breach of contract and has also brought criminal charges of fraud against top executives.
According to The Korea Times report on Tuesday, this is the second such lawsuit filed by the former Thai partner: the first one was filed last September in South Korea against the executives and major shareholders of the Exchange .
The latest complaint named Bithumb Global Holdings (BGH) and GBEX, along with their executives, who also hold high-level positions in Bithumb Korea.
Bithumb approached potential local business partners in Thailand and Japan in 2017 for its overseas expansion. The former partner alleged that the South Korean giant never had any intentions to open a Cryptocurrency Exchange in Thailand despite forming local entities in 2018.
Fraud with BXA Tokens
The exchange’s alleged focus was to sell BXA tokens by exaggerating its international presence.
“After Bithumb stopped its BXA coin business, its Thai operation became unnecessary, so the company ended its business in Thailand unilaterally, causing serious damage to us,” the former Thai partner told the Korean publication.
“BGH and GBEX collectively own a 49-percent stake in the joint venture in Thailand, and are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Bithumb Korea, so we sued Bithumb Korea's executives last year and decided recently to file lawsuits in Hong Kong against the Hong Kong subsidiaries and their executives, who are related to this issue more directly.”
In addition, he said that the new complaint has been filed in Hong Kong as the South Korean authorities did not take any action even after nine months. Moreover, the Hong Kong police have not responded to the complaint as of yet.
Earlier, the Korean police summoned Bithumb's Chairperson under a fraud investigation with BXA tokens, but that was not related to the Thai partner's complaint.
Furthermore, the former Thai partner revealed that Bithumb’s former Japanese partner might file a similar separate lawsuit against the exchange giant ‘in the near future.
