Judge Cohen postpones the decision on Bitfinex and Tether

Judge Cohen has postponed the decision on the New York Attorney General’s (NYAG) case against Bitfinex and Tether.

In fact, as Bloomberg reports, the judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Joel Cohen, decided on Monday to extend the injunction issued in April by the NYAG that still prevents Bitfinex from accessing the frozen funds, pending the conclusion of the investigation of the prosecutor Letitia James. 

Bloomberg also reports that Judge Cohen is considering closing the case, at the request of iFinex, the company that controls Bitfinex and Tether, but does not provide other details in this regard. 

Judge Cohen said he needed more time to make a final decision on whether to close the case or reject the iFinex request. For the moment, the situation remains the same until the next ruling, although the timing is not known. 

Bitfinex and Tether can continue to manage their businesses as they do now, but Tether cannot lend any more funds to Bitfinex yet. Moreover, the frozen funds at the exchange will remain idle. 

The request from iFinex to close the case is based on the assumption that the NYAG office would have no jurisdiction over either the companies or the ongoing issues, but of course, the other party argues that it has sufficient jurisdiction to investigate whether damage has been caused to residents of the State of New York.

In fact, the NYAG office claims that several New York-based entities, including Michael Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, have used Bitfinex’s services recently and that a resident of the State of New York has been able to open an account recently. 

On the other hand, iFinex claims that these entities have local offices in the State of New York, but do not have a registered office in the State. It admits instead that a US user has found a way around Bitfinex’s restrictions and has already been identified.