AB MINING Ltd., a provider of electronic equipment, has filed a $37.5-million lawsuit in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against a pair of blockchain companies. The suit claims that Global Blockchain Mining Corp. and Global Blockchain Technologies Corp. have failed to pay for a shipment of 3,000 bitcoin mining computers. AB Mining says that it was supposed to receive 62.8 million shares of Global Blockchain Technologies, but it received nothing.
The allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed at the Vancouver courthouse on Dec. 13, 2018. The suit stems from an agreement that the two blockchain issuers entered into with AB Mining in December, 2017. At the time, investors were enthralled with anything to do with blockchain or virtual currencies such as bitcoin. As a result, the computer hardware required for these ventures was scarce, the suit states. AB Mining says that it had access to the equipment, and was willing to sell it for shares.
As such, the agreement between AB Mining and the two companies required the companies to issue shares for what eventually amounted to 3,000 machines. At the time, Global Blockchain Mining was not yet listed (it was to be spun out from Global Blockchain Technologies). AB Mining wanted shares that would be immediately tradable, so it sought shares of Global Blockchain Technologies. In the event that Global Blockchain Mining was listed by the sale date, the shares would be in that issuer. The problem, as set out in the suit, was that Global Blockchain Mining had not obtained a listing when the deal closed. This meant that the shares would have to be in Global Blockchain Technologies. AB Mining claims that it was only offered shares in Global Blockchain Mining, with those shares initially not being listed and later being worth only one-quarter as much as shares in Global Blockchain Technologies would have been. AB Mining says that these were not the terms the parties originally agreed to.
As AB Mining sees things, the appropriate remedy is for the courts to impose the share issuance contemplated in the deal. It is also asking for $37.5-million in damages, representing the value of the bitcoin machines that the agreement specified. It is further seeking the value of 281.3 bitcoins (about $1.1-million (U.S.)), representing the number of bitcoins generated by the equipment to date. Global Blockchain Mining and Global Blockchain Technologies have not yet filed their responses to the suit. In the markets, Global Blockchain Mining closed at 1.5 cents Thursday, while Global Blockchain Technologies closed at five U.S. cents.
Peter Morgan McCague, Steven Nerayoff, Brendan Purdy, Johannes P M van der Linde
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