Yesterday, in Manhattan, Bitfinex and Tether filed a motion to dismiss the proceeding brought by the New York Attorney General’s office on the grounds that (1) the Attorney General’s office lacks jurisdiction over Bitfinex and Tether, which do not do business in New York state; (2) New York’s Martin Act does not apply to the companies’ businesses; and, (3) the Martin Act cannot be used extraterritorially to compel a foreign corporation to produce documents stored overseas. Bitfinex and Tether also sought an immediate stay of the Attorney General’s document demands.

Today, the Hon. Joel M. Cohen of the New York Supreme Court (Commercial Division) entered an order granting our motion for an immediate stay of the document demands, requiring the companies to produce only documents and information relevant to the limited issue of whether there is personal jurisdiction over the companies in New York but staying the document order in all other respects. Justice Cohen scheduled a hearing on our motion to dismiss for July 29, 2019.

We welcome Justice Cohen’s decision, which reflects that our motion raises significant legal challenges to the validity of the Attorney General’s actions.

This order is another victory in the ongoing defence of our businesses against the New York Attorney General’s overreach, and it comes on the heels of Justice Cohen’s ruling last week granting our motion to significantly narrow the injunction against our businesses obtained by the Attorney General. We look forward to continuing to challenge the New York Attorney General’s unmeritorious claims, and we will continue to vigorously protect our customers and assert our rights against those making false and unsupported claims against us.