Quote from: ninjarobot on June 12, 2012, 01:13:05 PM

Quote from: zhoutong on June 12, 2012, 12:37:15 PM

I haven't done much research, but to my best knowledge, DRS only applies to NZ residents.

I can not find this restriction in the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008:

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2008/0097/latest/whole.html

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7Application of Act
(1)This Act applies to persons who are in the business of providing a financial service.

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8ATerritorial scope
This Act applies to a person who
(a)is ordinarily resident in New Zealand (within the meaning of section 4 of the Crimes Act 1961) or has a place of business in New Zealand, regardless of where the financial service is provided; or
(b)is, or is required to be, a licensed provider under a licensing enactment.
Section 8A: inserted, on 1 July 2010, by section 10 of the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Amendment Act 2010 (2010 No 41).

So this only applies to the director of BITCOINICA CONSULTANCY LIMITED (Christopher Heaslip from http://www.irstax.co.nz/ )

Even if what you said is true and DRS only applies to NZ residents, BITCOINICA LP would still be required by law to register with a DRS if at least 1 customer of Bitcoinica.com is a resident of NZ.

Zhou is right:

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Section 48
(1) Every financial service provider must be a member of either an approved dispute resolution scheme, or the reserve scheme, in respect of a financial service provided to a retail client.

Bitcoinica are thus required to have a DRS in respect of their 'retail clients'. Given that this is NZ legislation, 'retail clients' can be taken to mean NZ retail clients. So unless you're from NZ, this won't really help you. In any case, Bitcoinica seem to have begun the refunding process. Why not give them a chance to resolve the matter themselves?

Involving a DRS, just like suing Bitcoinica, will only result in further delay, difficult and expensive arbitration proceedings as lawyers argue over the difficult legal questions around whether Bitcoins constitute money or not, and ultimately, less money refunded to Bitcoinica users. In my opinion, the best approach would be to simply submit a claim and wait it out - as hard and unfair as that may seem. Let bitcoinica refund everyone as best they can, and then, if you're not still not happy, pursue it in the courts.