Winklevoss Bros. Must Pay (Some Of) Charlie Shrem’s Legal Fees
February 8, 2019 11:51 PM
The twins need to pony up.
According to a document filed on Thursday, February 7, in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York, Winklevoss Capital Fund LLC (WCF) is directed to pay Charlie Shrem approximately $45,000 worth of his attorneys’ fees. This amount represents a 40 percent reduction in what Shrem had originally requested from WCF.
Although WCF’s lawyers argued that Shrem should not be awarded these fees, citing reasons such as Shrem not being «a prevailing party on attachment,» nor suffering any «actual attachment to speak of,» the court ultimately found Shrem entitled to recoup his attorneys’ fees. However, the court did not agree with the amount requested, as the request failed «to isolate those tasks specific to the order of attachment,» instead including hours billed for the case more generally. The court decided to reduce the requested amount by 40 percent, only authorizing an award related to the fees incurred during «the natural and proximate consequence of the wrongful attachment.»
The Winklevoss twins and Shrem’s legal back-and-forth started to gather steam in October 2018 when the court granted WCF’s ex parte attachment request to freeze Shrem’s assets up to 5,000 BTC. On November 1, after WCF filed a motion to confirm this request, Shrem was able to contest the court’s order.
A week later, on November 8, the court lifted the freeze on Shrem’s assets without providing specific reasons for doing so. The court’s judge, Jed S. Rakoff, wrote that «an opinion explaining the reasons for this ruling will issue in due course.»
Shrem may have won this round, but the lawsuit is ongoing, with a trial set to occur later in the year.
Dani is a full-time writer for ETHNews. He received his bachelor’s degree in English writing from the University of Nevada, Reno, where he also studied journalism and queer theory. In his free time, he writes poetry, plays the piano, and fangirls over fictional characters. He lives with his partner, three dogs, and two cats in the middle of nowhere, Nevada.
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