I hope the lawsuit will eventually lead to criminal charges against the officers of the corporation. They did not file a police report, even after the hacker was identified.
Zhou Tong isn't even named as a defendant in the lawsuit despite being the only person who claims to know the hacker's identity, and despite claiming to have promised the hacker that Bitcoinica LP would not start a police investigation into him. Also, who are the actual officers of the corporation in the first place? Zhou's certainly acting a lot like one, but...
I believe the officers of the corporation feel they are untouchable because the corporation is a separate legal entity. In Canada at least (a commonwealth country), a director of a corporation is REQUIRED to do whatever is necessary to protect the assets of said corporation. So while they cannot be held financially responsible for Bitcoinica's debts, they can be held criminally (and hence civilly) liable for failing to do anything about the crime that was committed against their public business. Basically, they did nothing while the money was taken. I'm sure they paid themselves handsomely, however, out of what was left.
All they had to do was pick up the phone and call the police. The fact they did not do this leads me to believe they profited from the hack.
In many places - including Australia and New Zealand - someone who is carrying out the duties of a director will have the same legal liability as a director whether they're named as such on the corporate papers or not. Directors
can be held personally liable for the debts of a company under certain circumstances, including - but not limited to - reckless, negligent or insolvent trading.
Bitcoinica LP is a limited partnership. Quite literally, in the case of LPs NZ law treats the limited partner/s (Wendon) as shareholders and the general partner/s (Bitcoinica Consultancy Ltd) as directors. The limited partner can only be held legally liable for the actions of the partnership if they've had a role in managing the company which goes beyond "safe harbour" activities which are specified in the Companies Act.
There is no doubt that "the Intersango guys" - either individually or as directors of Bitcoinica Consultancy Ltd - are legally on the hook in respect of Bitcoinica LP. It seems unlikely, though, given the totality of the circumstances regarding the failure of Bitcoinica that they
alone would be found liable
if an investigation into the failure of Bitcoinica was undertaken. A liquidator is required to establish why a company failed, but they rely heavily on information provided by the principals of the business and by creditors. A liquidator is obliged to establish whether directors (de jure or de facto) have any personal liability and to report any criminal misconduct to the appropriate authorities.
Anyone could make a criminal complaint regarding Bitcoinica right now. It's not essential to wait until the partnership has been liquidated or the US lawsuit has been heard.
Regardless of whether or not any criminal investigation arises in respect of Bitcoinica, Zhou's continued role in the business after its sale will come under scrutiny in any insolvency or civil action and that will include scrutiny of his transactions following the MtGox breach as well as his dealings with the alleged hacker. No court or liquidator is going to accept Zhou's statements regarding the AurumXchange transactions or the mysterious Chinese relic collector at face value, but we have no way of knowing whether Zhou would comply with requests from a US court or an NZ liquidator for information.