The Bitcoin, for the purposes of civil liability derived from crime, is not legal tender. This was the conclusion reached by the Supreme Court of Spain in its Judgment of June 20, 2019, rejecting a final appeal in cassation No. 998/2018.
As background to this judgment, we can say that the defendant had been convicted by the Provincial Madrid Court, in its Judgment of March 7, 2018, for ongoing fraud, and had to compensate the injured parties for the value of the market price of the bitcoin at the time that each one of the respective contracts were concluded, declaring the secondary civil liability of the company through which he had acted.
This judgement was appealed in cassation by the defendant, the secondary civil liability company and the private prosecution.
It was the private prosecution that provided the Supreme Court with the opportunity to declare on this matter when it indicated in its cassation appeal that, based on the provisions of articles 110 and 111 of the Criminal Code, the very same goods should be restored to their owner so that it would be appropriate for the judgment to condemn the defendant to return the stolen bitcoins and that only in the execution phase of the judgment, if those assets were not returned, then it should proceed to assess their value in terms of money and to sentence him to return that amount.
The Supreme Court judgment in resolving this appeal understood that the injured parties were not purloined of bitcoins, but of money in euros that by means of the deceit of the fraud itself delivered bitcoins to the defendant to invest in assets of said type, i.e., in bitcoins.
In addition, adds the Judgment, the bitcoin is not something which is capable of being returned since it is not a material object, nor is it legal tender.
Click here to read the full blogpost by Ascensión Martín of Ally Law member firm Martí & Associats.
