South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has initiated legal action to recover 7 Bitcoins that are still missing following a withdrawal error that saw 620,000 BTC mistakenly distributed during a promotional event in February.
The exchange filed a motion for interim garnishment, a court-approved measure that freezes assets ahead of a civil lawsuit and targets users who have not yet returned their funds. According to – according to a Thursday report by local store Chosun Biz.
On February 6, the exchange wanted to distribute a total of 620,000 won ($420) to 249 event winners. Instead, due to an input error, the system sent 620,000 Bitcoin (BTC), briefly valuing the erroneous transfer at approximately 62 trillion Korean won ($42 billion). Although the exchange reversed the transactions within minutes, some of the funds had already been transferred.
Following the incident, Bithumb claimed to have recovered 99.7% of the funds on the same day. The exchange claimed that the remaining 0.3%, or 1,788 BTC, that had already been sold was covered by company reserves.
Related: Bithumb seeks to reappoint CEO despite recent controversy: report
Bithumb turns to the court for aid
Bithumb has since contacted affected users individually and recovered most of the funds sold, but according to Chosun Biz, a petite number of recipients refused to refund the remainder. An industry official familiar with the matter told the outlet that some recipients claimed they were not responsible for the refund, citing an exchange error.
However, the report stated that if the case continues, these users could face unfavorable outcomes in court. Under South Korean law, property received in error is usually classified as unjust enrichment and must be returned.
Cointelegraph reached out to Bithumb for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Related: South Korean brokerage Korea Investment & Securities is eyeing a stake in Coinone: report
South Korea forces calls to be reconciled every five minutes
Earlier this week, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission ordered all cryptocurrency exchanges to reconcile their internal records with actual asset balances every five minutes to prevent delays in detecting discrepancies following the Bithumb withdrawal incident.
The audit found that three of the country’s five major exchanges reconciled balances only once a day, limiting their ability to respond to errors.
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