Rik: You said it's good AMT is trying to solve these problems instead of "going out of business" because if they do so "people won't receive a dime".
This is pure unfounded bullshit.
A judge can demand garnishment the wages of those responsible to get the plaintiffs paid back. They can also take control of their assets in order for these monies to be paid back.
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A legal solution has a lot of uncertainty to us, so IF AMT is finally realizing that they need to treat as us partners and customers rather than fools (admittedly a big question mark on that), then working something out with AMT is better IMHO.
For those of you who are in the lawsuit, or thinking about it, consider and ask your lawyer about each of the following:
(1) It will take at least a year to get a judgment that can be enforced. By then, how much will the inventory that AMT has be worth? Probably not much.
(2) Yes, you can garnish wages and such in order to collect from the individuals, but ONLY if you can prove fraud or "pierce the corporate veil" which protects individuals from liability. This is very hard to do, though not impossible. And you are assuming that the individuals involved will have sufficient assets. Overpromising and making mistakes does not equate to fraud. You would need to show that the individuals involved knew they could not deliver and lied to cover it up. Possible, but hard to prove.
(3) The legal fees involved in getting to a judgment and then collecting that (especially if you have to pursue the individuals through a fraud or piercing the corporate veil claim) will be very high. Ask your lawyer for an estimate, but I would guess nothing less than $500,000 if you include collection expenses, or maybe 50% if they take it on contingency. This will decrease substantially what you can get and will require the lawsuit folks to foot a big bill. Even on contingency, you may still have to pay expenses which can be many times what a 1.2 Th/s miner would cost.
(4) If AMT files for bankruptcy, you have a big legal mess (read: expensive and unlikely to collect). The lawsuit will go away, and instead you will have an unsecured claim, and the court will liquidate the assets usually in fire sale fashion for next to nothing. Legal costs will likely eat up any assets. On the plus side, in a bankruptcy the trustee will pursue claims for fraudulent conveyance and preference to the extent that assets were transferred out of AMT, but the issue of getting recovery and the costs and time of getting recovery still remains substantial.
I think that if AMT is really a big scam (as opposed to being honest but less than competent), our best bet is to pursue criminal remedies and write off the miners as a loss. Some have already moved in that direction I know. For myself, I am waiting to see what AMT does now that they are at least appearing to recognize what they need to do.
Having said all that, another period of silence, another set of false promises, or any more obfuscation and I think we have no other choice. But my advice to all is to give AMT this last chance. We have nothing to lose, as it is lost already if there has been fraud.