Biggest Shareholder Of Bithumb Pulls Out Of A Lawsuit

In a theatrical U-turn, the biggest shareholder of Bithumb, the South Korean crypto exchange, has pulled out of a lawsuit that posed a threat of the future existence of the leading South Korean platform as we are reading in the following blockchain news.

In November of 2019, the biggest shareholders of the exchange reached an agreement to buy a 34.24% stake in Bithumb from the holding company Bithumb Holdings, after which he made a decision to sue them after information came out in December of 2019 that the exchange had been served a whopping USD 67 million tax bill. South Korean tax authorities made for the first time decision to tax transactions carried out by the foreign customers of Bithumb, giving the bill to Bithumb, instead of the customers of the exchange.

According to Chosun and Digital Today, Vidente was of the impression that Bithumb Holdings withheld information about the likelihood of being served with a tax bill of this magnitude prior to the acquisition deal. Vidente experienced a huge fall of share prices after the publication of the Bithumb tax news story and was trying to recover damages from Bithumb Holdings.  But it looks like Bithumb Holdings succeeded, with an eleventh-hour bid to halt legal proceedings.

Digital Today quotes an official of Vidente that claimed that a team from Bithumb Holdings that was composed of the CEO of Bithumb Holdings and representatives of individual Bithumb shareholders gave a $10.8 million guarantee. Vidente also said that operators of Bithumb had pledged to an out-of-court settlement, with the intention of paying back Vidente for damages caused to the share prices of Vidente. Bithhumb has been under huge pressure because of issues in relation to ownership after BK Consortium, the Singapore-based plastic surgery company that purchased the platform in 2018 for $354 million, defaulted on payment last year.

As per the recent reports, The latest news shows that Bithumb apparently thinks about undertaking administrative litigation over a $68.9 million (80 billion won) tax bill. According to reports of the KoreaHerald news outlet from December 29, the local tax agency has handed down over 80 billion won in the taxation of the exchange. This outlet notes that a document published by Bithumb’s largest shareholder Vidente through the financial supervisory services, National Tax Service forced the exchange to pay the withholding taxes on the trading of foreign customers.