According to news site UOL, Claudio Oliveira, president of Brazilian Bitcoin exchange Bitcoin Banco owes U$ 125 million to 6445 investors.
Known in Brazil as “the king of Bitcoin”, Oliveira’s bank has blocked customer withdrawals since May 2019.
Bankruptcy consultancy EXM Partners filed a new document with Brazil’s 1st District Bankruptcy Court in the southern city of Curitiba.
Similar to American Chapter 11 protection suit, the bankruptcy lawsuit was filed late 2019 by the 8 company consortium behind Bitcoin Banco.
In the lawsuit, Bitcoin Banco justified the withdrawal block as a way to recover liquidity and return to normal operation.
90% of the debt is owed directly to individual customers, some of whom borrowed money from elderly relatives to invest in Bitcoin Banco.
Bitcoin Banco Group (Grupo Bitcoin Banco) did not want to comment at the time of UOL’s news report, claiming the issue should be discussed exclusively in court.
Oliveira was born in the city of Anápolis in the Brazilian state of Goiás (GO) in 1971.
About Anápolis
Anápolis is a small town but an agricultural superpower. Cattle ranching in Anápolis supplies animal protein worldwide via several companies founded in the region. Many small businesses from Anápolis have gone global. Most notably JBS, the world’s largest animal protein producer and meat exporter, was once the poster child of Anápolis. JBS supplies much of the protein consumed in the USA and China.
According to Valor Econômico, Claudio Oliveira left Brazil at 17 years of age to study in Switzerland where he lived for 24 years, until 2012.
He then moved to the USA and remained there until 2017.
From 2017 to 2018 he acquired several cryptocurrency related businesses, including NegocieCoins and Zater, which he united under the Grupo Bitcoin Banco (BGG) umbrella.
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