According to a recent report, a lawsuit of approximately $22.5 million has been filed against Hapoalim, an Israeli bank, by an unnamed investor for its refusal to accept deposits of profits earned from Bitcoin (BTC).
The complaint against the financial institution is being filed as a class-action suit, and the investor has revealed his intention to sue other banks in Israel for the same reason.
Israeli Banks Are Anti-crypto
Banks in Israel are allegedly anti-crypto because they wish to avoid being investigated in association with crypto-related companies and individuals.
The complainant’s lawyer, Lior Lahav, however, claimed that the above-mentioned reason is not adequate enough for banks to refuse to render services to digital currency investors.
He said:
“The banks have an obligation under the law to accept money from the clients […] They can check on their clients, do their due diligence, and find out where the money is coming from. The problem with the banks is that they are doing nothing. They are not asking their clients: ‘Provide me documentation of the origin of the money.’”
Also, Lahav provided the scale of the issue, claiming that there are tens of thousands of Israeli investors who are also being punished for no apparent wrongdoing:
He added that:
“There are more than 70,000 bitcoin investors in Israel who are facing the same problem from their banks […] 99 per cent of them are ordinary people that invested in a thing that’s completely legal.”
Furthermore, Lahav made it known that his client was not Ross Gross, a Bitcoin investor who claimed that Hapoalim did not accept his deposit because he got it from crypto trading profits.
Gross started investing in Bitcoin in 2011 and has reported his earnings to the Israeli tax authority. However, in 2017, Bank Hapoalim refused to continue accepting his deposits of funds earned from Bitcoin trading, and due to this he has not been able to pay his capital gains taxes, therefore, the tax authority has placed a lien on his bank account, scooters, and home.
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