Quote from: NRF on August 02, 2012, 12:49:09 AM

Quote from: tseale on August 01, 2012, 07:30:08 PM

Acting in its capacity as creditor to Bitcoinica LP, the Wendon Group investment fund will appoint a receiver under New Zealand law.

I have been kind of waiting and hoping for this. I am not a Claimant so I could take no direct action myself but I applaud your actions. (Even though I think you may get next to nothing back)

What I am really (and selfishly) hoping for is that it will give a legal test case and President of the status of Bitcoin in New Zealand Law . It will probably have to go all the way to the High Court to do it, and New Zealand is probably the only country in the world you can do it in at the moment (I wont bore you with New Zealand Law and current event's Roll Eyes

) .

From there it is a simple step to Commonwealth Law because of the quirks of how New Zealand law works and from there to International Law will probably have to involve another president case (or possibly even the same one).

I humbly suggest everyone get behind this bandwagon.

Liquidation won't necessarily lead to the nature of Bitcoin being legally determined. A liquidator is bound to realise any assets but they don't need to decide whether it's a currency, a commodity, or something else entirely. That particular issue would most likely arise if creditors owed USD asserted that those who were owed Bitcoin only had no valid legal claim. That seems extremely unlikely to happen. The most likely scenario is that all of the Bitcoins over which the liquidator takes control will be sold and then the money from that sale will be combined with the currency on hand to meet the claims of creditors.

Zhou maintained that Bitcoinica was a platform allowing users to trade contracts for difference rather than Bitcoins. I'm not sure whether this will have any implications for the liquidation process but I doubt this is the first NZ liquidation in which CFD have been a feature.

If any creditors are unhappy with the liquidator's decisions or actions then the High Court is where any challenges must be made.

Soon after the liquidator is appointed and takes control of Bitcoinica's assets, creditors will receive a report which outlines the assets and liabilities of Bitcoinica, the proposed liquidation plan and an estimated date for completion of the liquidation process. While it's likely that those appointing the liquidator will choose someone they believe will follow the original payout process for returning user funds which was already under way, liquidators don't have unlimited discretion and creditors can petition to have the appointed liquidator replaced by either another private liquidator or the Official Assignee. New Zealand law allows for those who have assisted in securing/recovering assets for the benefit of creditors to have their costs reimbursed by the liquidator as a preferential claim in addition to their total unsecured debt being granted preferential status.