Preliminary Injunction Issued in $182K Cryptocurrency Fraud Case
On Tuesday, April 23, 2024, the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida granted a preliminary injunction in the case of Hemanthkumar Jambulingam v. Defendant “1” et al.
According to court documents, Mr. Jambulingam claimed that he was deceived by two individuals posing as customer service representatives from two websites. They convinced him to transfer around $182,000 worth of various digital currencies into accounts that the defendants said were set up for his benefit. However, the plaintiff alleges the accounts were actually controlled by the defendants, who then stole the cryptocurrencies.
Through analysis of blockchain transaction records, the plaintiff identified several Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet addresses that they believe were used by the defendants to launder the stolen digital assets. The court order referred to these as “Destination Addresses” and listed specific ones at two major cryptocurrency exchanges.
Mr. Jambulingam filed a lawsuit against the defendants, referred to as John Does, accusing them of conversion, unjust enrichment, and conspiracy related to the alleged cryptocurrency theft. He argued that the digital currencies should be subject to a constructive trust.
As the true identities and locations of the defendants are unknown, the plaintiff served them notice of the legal proceedings through non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, sent to the Destination Addresses. These contained a link to a website with the case filings.
In its order, the court found the plaintiff had adequately notified the defendants and made his case for a preliminary injunction. This included showing irreparable harm could occur if the stolen assets weren’t frozen, and that maintaining the status quo was necessary until the issues were resolved in court.
The injunction prohibits the defendants and associated parties from withdrawing, transferring, or encumbering any cryptocurrency held in the identified Digital Addresses. It also requires the plaintiff to notify the defendants about the order through the same NFT notification method.
Please contact BlockTribune for access to a copy of this filing.
