Client reviews — page 21 of 24

“Got back less than half. Honest about the odds from the start, that much is true.”

“The crypto lender blocked the withdrawal and proposed I hand over the tokens below their value, presenting it as a favour. I preferred to go through lawyers: it ended in a settlement and the money came back in full. If a similar offer reaches you with your account blocked, have somebody read it before you sign.”

“Four stars, and I will say straight away why. Arbistar 2.0 took a sum I would rather not repeat. The lawyers worked on the criminal confiscation in Spain, the proceedings crawl along, but the first tranche of 12167 euros is already on the card. The missing star is for the telephone: at your office it is either engaged or the answering machine picks up”

“BitGrail stole my Ether. The insolvency estate is a joke, some pennies. The firm promised to pull everything out, but the segregated assets they returned in full, while the rest of the balance they credited in pennies. All in all I got about half of my 35k euros. Something at least, honestly I thought it would be zero altogether.”

Reply from the firm

Ida Grandi

Lawyer · Crypto exchange insolvencies

If you were promised we would 'get everything out', that promise was wrong: in the BitGrail procedure the distribution depends on the estate, and even we only partly know what is in it. Your segregated assets are yours and came back in full; the rest is a claim in a procedure that pays in cents, and that belonged in the first letter.

“They got my 7538 euros back from topoption fast. CySEC suspended their licence and made them pay people back. The money came in three weeks straight to my card. Thank you!!”

“Verano Advisory scammed my grandpa. The firm joined as civil party in Milan and got 9,815 euros back from the network’s frozen accounts.”

“I have no words, honestly!!! Veridex Coin took 33,000 euros away, and my café in Bari was going with them. A supplier who had been through exactly the same thing sent me here. They filed the application for criminal seizure in Milan, and then two years passed in which I had stopped even asking for news. Yesterday 23,133 euros landed on my card! It is not all of it, but for me it is an enormous win!!! My heartfelt thanks to Ms Greta Merlini, who explained every step to me ten times over without once making me feel like a fool.”

“To this day I don’t understand why it happened this way... The FSCS only raised the limit to £85,000 in April 2019, but my case with the broker OakmontFX fell under the old rules! I was only paid back 50 thousand pounds, though there was almost 70. The firm’s lawyers did everything by the book, I have no complaints about them, the papers were filled in clearly. But this timing - it’s just some cruel joke of fate. I wrote an appeal to the ombudsman, spent another half year on it, and at the same time we were renovating the bedroom and I was living out of boxes, nerves at the edge. A very bitter aftertaste remained, even though part of the money is home.”

Reply from the firm

Giovanna Vinci

Partner · Investor compensation funds

We did not choose the date the new limit took effect and could not move it: the ombudsman complaint was the only route left, and we told you the odds were poor. Six more months for an outcome that stayed unlikely: if we had to give that advice again today, we would put it more bluntly.

“i had assumed that when Silbern Digital shut down my bitcoins had gone into one common heap along with everybody else’s. that was not the case: the lawyers at Carrara e Associati showed me in black and white that the funds were sitting on segregated accounts at the German partner bank that held the accounts, and segregated accounts do not go into the insolvency estate. three months later i had all my 34101 euros back, down to the cent. i know nothing about the law, but this piece of work they did properly.”