Some creditors of failed crypto exchange Mt. Gox have been paid settlement funds twice, according to multiple reports on Reddit. According to at least one Reddit user, Mt. Gox has admitted the error through email and is demanding the second payment be given back.
Reddit user u/rlycreativename posted the text of an email they claimed to have received from the Mt. Gox Rehabilitation Trustee. The email stated that “due to a system issue, the transfer of money to you was inadvertently made twice.” In addition, it warned that “you are not authorized to receive the second transfer and are legally obligated to return the above amount to the Rehabilitation Trustee.” In the purported email, the Trustee requested that the user “immediately refund” this second payment.
Other Reddit users also reported receiving the double payments or email. U/lukhaz stated “I've just got an email from Mt.Gox requesting refund of duplicate transfer…” and posted an image purported to be from the email. In an edit to a reply to another post, u/CaptainValor joked that the double payment could be a late Christmas present, stating:
“Um... I think I got paid twice? I received two transactions, each of which seems equal to the total of the BTC/BCH Non-allotment (JPY) amounts. So... Merry... Christmas...? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯”
At least one user claimed to have given the double payment back. U/PPvotersPostingLs stated: “I sent it it back. We all make mistakes, don't be too hard on [Mt. Gox Trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi].”
Others suggested that the Trust doesn’t deserve to be given the money back, given how difficult it was for creditors to get the money in the first place. “I’ll give it back,” Reddit user u/JALEW stated, but added they will only do so if the Mt. Gox Trust finishes a Know Your Customer (KYC) process with them and waits ten years.
Cointelegraph could not immediately reach the Mt. Gox Rehabilitation Trust for comment.
Despite some users joking they will not return the funds, actually carrying out the threat may be risky. In 2022, two sisters in Melbourne were accidently sent over $10 million by Crypto.com. One of the sisters was later arrested for not returning the funds, according to an Australian news report.
The Mt. Gox exploit was one of the first crypto exchange hacks in history. Over 740,000 Bitcoin (BTC) was drained in the attack. At the time, the lost funds were worth approximately $460 million, but the size of the loss has grown as the price of BTC has, reaching over $31 billion today. Mt. Gox declared bankruptcy shortly afterward, but it has taken creditors nearly ten years to win a settlement in court and begin receiving payments. On Dec. 26, creditors began reporting that they were starting to receive settlement payments through PayPal.