Kingdom Trust and Bitcoin IRA Caught in Counter-Lawsuits Over Clients’ Accounts, “Sharing Trade Secrets”

In May 2018, BitGo and Kingdom Trust launched an institutional grade custodial services for its clients. The project saw a period of success as tokens were added to its vault and the number of clients grew. However, in the past few months, the two have had a fierce split with the latest reports on The Block confirming Kingdom Trust just filed a lawsuit against BitGo and Bitcoin IRA.

Kingdom Trust claims that Bitcoin IRA used their client list and other “trade secrets” to urge customers to ditch them for BitGo. The law suit further stated that BitGo and Bitcoin IRA formed an undisclosed partnership in May this year hence the move by Bitcoin IRA to take clients to BitGo.

How the suit happened

The lawsuit further explains the likely acquisition of Kingdom Trust client’s information and trade secrets by Bitcoin IRA. In an agreement made by the two companies, Bitcoin IRA clients were referred to Kingdom Trust custody which may have given them a gateway to access the clients’ accounts information.

Once in possession, the lawsuit claims Bitcoin IRA sent the info to BitGo enticing the clients with emails and messages to join the new custodian firm.

The destructive link

Following the partnership between BitGo and Bitcoin IRA, a link appeared on the official site of the latter company asking clients to update their accounts.

The lawsuit by Kingdom Trust says the Bitcoin IRA link not only asked customers to update their accounts but directed these clients from Kingdom Trust accounts to the defendants’ account. In an email sent, BitGo spokesperson said,

“We do not comment on pending litigation. However, we are confident that when the facts come to light through the judicial process it will be clear that BitGo has committed absolutely no wrongdoing.”

The saga continues

Digital IRA, parent to Bitcoin IRA, filed a counter suit against Kingdom Trust claiming the custodian refused to release customers’ accounts to other custodians.

The report released by Digital IRA further claims that the custodian employed “unfair” and “deceptive” tactics when customers asked to move their digital assets to other custodians.