Chilean Court Orders Two Major Banks to Keep Open Checking Accounts of Crypto Exchange Buda

Chile’s Free Competition Defense Court (TDLC) ruled in favor of the Latin American cryptocurrency exchange Buda after their checking accounts were closed by two major banks in the midst of a lawsuit related to a Ponzi scheme unrelated to the exchange.

Chilean Court Rejected Petitions From Two Banks to Keep Checking Accounts Closed From Crypto Exchange Buda

According to Diario Financiero, the TDLC decided that Banco Itaú and BancoEstado should keep open Buda’s bank accounts, which were shut down in 2018 during an investigation of a bogus company named Terra Finance that turned to be a scam.

The lawsuit filed by four victims of the scheme — defrauded with a total amount of 100 million Chilean pesos ($200,000 approximately) — said that they were users of the crypto exchange. At that time, Banco Itaú backed its decision by claiming that Buda allowed the usage of its platform for bogus companies like Terra Finance indirectly and did nothing to stop it:

“Buda is indirectly allowing the use of Itaú’s systems by other cryptocurrency exchanges, of recognized risk, without being able to do anything about it.”

However, the Chilean court didn’t consider strong enough such claims and issued the following resolution on the matter:

The new information presented does not undermine the serious presumption of the right that is claimed or of the facts denounced in the lawsuit.

Legal Battle Is Still Alive

Speaking with the local media outlet, Samuel Cañas, Buda’s chief legal officer, said:

The bank has not been able to present sufficient information to dismiss the serious presumption of acts that threaten free competition that the Court determined to grant the precautionary measure in favor of Buda.com.

But the legal battle had not ended, said Guillermo Torrealba, Buda’s CEO, since the lawyers told him that there is still 1 year left. Still, he pointed out that the exchange is going “on the right path,” as four of five judges voted in favor of Buda, instead of the three votes they got in the last audience.