Creditors of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange, Mt. Gox, were caught off guard recently when they discovered that they had received their settlement funds twice.
In response, the trustee overseeing the exchange’s rehabilitation process has begun sending emails to these creditors, requesting the return of the excess amount.
A Reddit user shared the contents of an email received from the Mt. Gox trustee, which blamed a “system issue” for the double payments.
Several other Reddit users also confirmed they had received duplicate payments and subsequent emails.
The email stated, “Due to a system issue, the transfer of money to you was inadvertently made twice.
Please note that you are not authorized to receive the second transfer and are legally obligated to return the above amount to the Rehabilitation Trustee.”
Mt. Gox, once a prominent cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Japan, handled up to 70 percent of global Bitcoin transactions at its peak.
However, in 2014, it suffered a devastating hack and was unable to recover. The former CEO of the exchange was convicted in a Japanese court for tampering with exchange records.
To compensate creditors, Nobuaki Kobayashi was appointed as the trustee overseeing the exchange’s assets.
However, the rehabilitation process dragged on for a decade, with multiple deadline extensions, before some creditors received payments earlier this month.
Creditors who received double payments were urged by the trustee’s email to “immediately refund the [additional] amount.”
In cases where PayPal refunds were not feasible, they were asked to initiate a payment equivalent to the excess amount to the trustee.
The reaction among creditors has been mixed, at least among those who voiced their opinions on social media.
One Reddit user even sarcastically suggested that the trustee should wait ten years for the refund. Nevertheless, at least one creditor has confirmed returning the surplus amount.
Despite the accidental windfall for some Mt. Gox creditors, they remain legally obligated to return the duplicated funds.
In previous cases, cryptocurrency exchanges took legal action against recipients of accidental transfers who refused to return the funds.
Notably, last year, Crypto.com sued two Melbourne-based sisters who mistakenly received $10.5 million but declined to return the sum, leading to the arrest of one of the sisters.