OTTAWA An Ottawa judge has frozen the bank accounts and digital “wallets” of convoy leaders believed to hold more than $1 million in bitcoin and cryptocurrency after an extraordinary secret hearing.
Late Thursday, Ontario Superior Court Justice Calum MacLeod granted an injunction to a private citizens’ effort to stanch the flow of money that was a lifeline for the 21-day occupation of Ottawa.
MacLeod issued the sweeping order freezing all the digital assets and bank accounts of convoy leaders, several of whom are directors of a corporation they created three weeks ago.
He ordered any banks, financial institutions, money service businesses, fundraising platforms or websites, cryptocurrency exchanges or platforms, and custodians of any cryptocurrency wallets to halt transactions related to the organizers’ accounts and digital wallets.
And the institutions and platforms must disclose the assets held within to the court.
Lawyer Paul Champ, acting on behalf of a group of Ottawa residents who have launched a class-action lawsuit for damages caused by the protest, won the injunction during an unusual “ex-parte” hearing, held “in camera” — without public notice or access. The targeted defendants did not receive advance warning, nor did they have an opportunity to get a lawyer to court to contest the claims.
It was a calculated effort to halt the flow of funds after a private investigator and a bitcoin expert hired by Champ flagged that the “Freedom Convoy” organizers were moving cryptocurrency funds out of digital wallets and into new ones faster than the RCMP could keep up, and outpacing the federal government’s efforts to track them, Champ said.
At last count, according to information in the court order, at least 146 different digital wallets were believed to be in play. Most were listed as containing bitcoin, but other digital currencies were also identified.
Champ, his co-counsel, and a group of Ottawa citizens have filed a broader class-action…
