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.
… 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.
