Bitvestment Partners LLC f/k/a Dalsa Barbour LLC In re AlydianWe successfully represented creditor client, Bitvestment, in fighting a debtor's request to auction its bitcoin-mining rigs, which has resulted in a settlement in Bitvestment’s favor. Bitvestment had entered into a contract with Bainbridge Island-based Alydian and its affiliate CoinLab to receive the first 7,500 bitcoins that Alydian mined, but Alydian refused to perform its contract as it faced more competition for mining bitcoin and their value soared. Bitvestment first filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York, after which Alydian sought to block the suit by filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Seattle on November 1, 2013. Initially, the debtor tried to reject the Bitvestment contract as an executory contract, but we were successful in convincing the court that the contract could not be rejected. Thereafter, discovery efforts resulted in disclosures that the debtor had transferred more than $12M worth of bitcoin to its affiliate just before the day of filing; had misrepresented payments to insiders and the costs it incurred; and was in fact profitably mining bitcoin throughout November and December 2013, and into January. At the hearing to sell the mining rigs, the Judge, relying on evidence we submitted, said they were very close to dismissing the bankruptcy case entirely due to uncertainties about who owns the mining rigs, their value, the risk that insiders would be favored in bidding and inaccuracies in the debtor’s financial statements. |