Plaintiffs seek to serve elusive $100M ICO issuers via social media

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Investors in an initial coin offering (ICO) that raised $100 million are seeking to serve court documents to the token sales issuers via social media. The investors claim they have been unable to trace the two founders of the digital currency project.

In a letter to a U.S. court in the Southern District of New York, the plaintiffs claim that they have attempted to trace the founders of Status Network to no avail. The two founders, Jarrad Hope and Carl Bennetts, are alleged to be residing in Europe. This has made it impossible to serve them court documents.

Status is a blockchain company that claimed to build decentralized apps which allow the users to interact with DApps running on Ethereum. In its 2017 ICO, Status raised over $100 million in less than 24 hours. However, according to investors, the company sold unregistered securities. In their class-action lawsuit, the investors are seeking a refund from the company.

In their motion, the plaintiffs are now seeking the judge’s approval to use social media to serve the defendants. They propose to use Twitter, LinkedIn, personal and Status emails and any other digital channel to deliver the court documents.

“Plaintiff’s proposed means of service (through counsel for Status, email, and social media) are not prohibited by any international agreement,” the motion claimed.

The investors filed the lawsuit against Status in April, claiming that the company had violated U.S. security laws. They claimed that the company had misled them to believe that it was offering a utility token. They demanded a refund, with interest, from the company, as well as attorneys’ fees.

Since April, they have been working to trace the two founders to serve them the court documents. In their latest motion, the investors claim that they have used significant resources in their effort, including hiring a private investigator to track the two founders.

The lawsuit against Status was one in a batch of lawsuits against some of the largest digital currency companies in the world. Nicknamed the digital currency’s “Red Wedding” after a massacre in the popular TV show Game of Thrones, the lawsuits targeted Binance, Block.one, KuCoin, BiBox, Civic, Bancor and more.