Chinese crypto mining equipment manufacturer is always in the news for one reason or the other. Over the past year, Bitmain has witnessed a failed IPO, in-fighting at the highest levels, and mass employee layoffs. But the company finally has a reason to celebrate as the People’s Court of Beijing Haidian District (1) ruled in favor of Bitmain in a lawsuit that it filed against its previously owned company Poolin.
Bitmain filed a lawsuit against three former company executives.
Bitmain filed a lawsuit two years back in 2018 against its three former company executives, Pan Zhibiao, Fa Zhu, and Tianzhao Li, who had branched off and started their own transaction processing operation. These same three former executives helped Bitmain create digital currency mining operations BTC.com and Antpool. The creation of Poolin by former Bitmain executives was in violation of a standing non-compete agreement. Bitmain sought restitution for the breach of contract and filed the lawsuit against Poolin.
Court orders Poolin to pay Bitmain $123,000 in compensation.
The People’s Court of Beijing Haidian District had announced the verdict back in January, but it was recently made public. The court determined that Bitmain was right and that the non-compete agreement would have contractually remained in effect until August 9, 2019. Poolin was ordered to pay Bitmain $123,000 in compensation and an additional $173,000 in fines for breaking the non-compete contract. The amount ordered by the court was nowhere near what Bitmain had hoped for.
Bitmain had initially tried to receive a judgment of $4.3 million. The China-based bitcoin mining equipment maker reached that number by considering a fine of $667,000 for the non-compete contract breach and the handling fees from the 26,825 BTC that Poolin had mined since its launch. The court, however, decided that the amount was too excessive. Even though the victory was small for Bitmain, but the company can now focus on settling more important matters. Former Bitmain executive also filed a lawsuit against the company for his expulsion from his company without any notice.
