Court rules in favor of HelbizCoin investors, class lawsuit to go ahead
A United States federal court has allowed a nearly three-year-long class-action lawsuit against the creators of HelbizCoin to go ahead,.
The class-action suit was first brought against Helbiz, Helbiz CEO Salvatore Palella, and its partners in 2020, with an amended complaint filed in March 2022.
The case involves an Italian electric scooter-sharing company HelBiz that raised $38.6 million in an ICO and issued an ERC-20 token with one of the founders of Ethereum, Anthony Di Iorio, in 2018, according to the complaint.
A group of investors, numbering as many as 20,000, alleged that HelbizCoin was a rug pull and fraudulent pump-and-dump scheme, with the firm making false statements and promises to induce people to purchase the coins. They claimed that Helbiz kept most of the money from the ICO for itself.
On Sept. 1, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York partially ruled in favor of investors who filed the class-action suit, with the court granting the motions to dismiss in part and denied them in part.
The court, however, dismissed all claims against certain defendants entirely, including Paysafe, Skrill, Decentral and Alphabit, finding a lack of personal jurisdiction over Paysafe and Alphabit. The court also dismissed some claims against the remaining defendants for failure to state a claim, including breach of contract, tortious interference, and certain securities claims.
However, Judge Louis Stanton also ruled that plaintiffs adequately stated claims for fraud, price manipulation, violations of securities laws, commodities laws, the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act, and unjust enrichment against some defendants.
“Among other matters, the case found that the ERC-20 token is a
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