EU Parliament Receives Petition Seeking to Establish Crypto Crime Victims’ Fund

A petition to the European Parliament hopes to persuade the bloc to provide financial support to victims of cryptocurrency crime.

The petition, filed Wednesday by lawyer Jonathan Levy, seeks the implementation of a “regulatory scheme to compensate victims” who were fleeced of digital assets by fraud, hacks and extortion. To date, 44 supporters have signed the petition.

Levy wants the EU to implement a .0001 cent per euro fee on cryptocurrency transactions that would be pooled into a “victim superfund,” according to a press release sent to CoinDesk.

The lawyer represents clients who have suffered losses exceeding €50 million (US$60.7 million) and is joined by class representatives for the 240,000 account holders caught up in the alleged exit scam by Irish cryptocurrency exchange Bitsane.

At today’s prices, the victim’s funds lost to the Irish exchange would be worth as much as €1 billion (US$1.2 billion), according to Levy.

“Victims of the collapsed  Irish cryptocurrency exchange Bitsane are still awaiting justice,” he said, claiming that Irish authorities had “accomplished little or nothing” to track down Bitsane users’ stolen funds.