THE Petaling Jaya Sessions Court yesterday awarded a Malaysian man nearly RM700,000 in damages in a negligence suit filed against a crypto e-wallet provider over the alleged unauthorised use of more than half a million ringgit in his account in 2021 to buy bitcoin, Malay Mail reports.

Judge Sazlina Safie, in online proceedings, ruled in favour of businessman Yew See Tak, 49 and held Luno Malaysia Sdn Bhd to be negligent.

“The court ordered, among others, for the defendant to compensate the plaintiff the sum of RM597,920.05 together with an additional RM100,000 as exemplary damages,” lawyer Ong Yu Jian was quoted by Malay Mail as saying.

Yew had, on August 28, 2021, filed the suit against Luno for failing to safeguard his cryptocurrency, kept in his Luno account.

Yew, in his statement of claim, said Luno was authorised by the Securities Commission to offer this crypto service and had been doing so since July 29, 2019.

He said he was registered as a customer to buy, sell and exchange cryptocurrency through the defendant.

On March 6, 2021, money kept in the account was transferred out in three tranches by an unidentified hacker.

Yew said he filed a complaint with the defendant’s customer service department after discovering the losses and sent a letter of demand, but did not receive a positive response.

Aside from Ong, Yew was also represented by Joshua Ho and Nurul Hanani Azamuddin.

Lawyers Muhammad Faisal Moideen, Maximilian Tai, and Clarence Tang appeared for Luno. – November 1, 2023.