The Kanifing High Court is later next month expected to read its ruling in the Bitcoin Tower case as the matter took yet another twist.
Lawyers for one of the shareholders Manuel Di Stofleth Mitterer had asked the court to review the judgement it delivered in the case that their client brought against his partners Ebrima Solomon Tamba and Marcel Limbertus Van Andel.
Gambian national Tamba and Dutch Andel are shareholders in the multi-million dalasi Bitcoin Tower project in Bijilo but Manuel, through his lawyers Ida Drammeh and Sheriff Tambedou, went to the court in an attempt to shut his partners from the business.
The Bitcoin Tower is a 31-apartment block that Tamba, Andel and Stofleth partnered to construct with the objective of selling the apartments off-plan. The tower also has a restaurant and an underground car park.
However, the Bitcoin Tower project ran into trouble last year when Tamba and Andel filed a criminal complaint with the cybercrime unit of the Gambian police. The subsequent police investigation into Tamba and Andel’s suspicion of shady deals against Manuel resulted in the pressing of a “disobedience of a lawful order” charge against him and his partner; Angelika Stofleth. They are still going in and out of a lower court in Banjul as proceedings against them continue.
On Wednesday, the Kanifing High Court, chaired by Justice Kwabeng, set aside the 16th March, for ruling on lawyers Drammeh and Tambedou’s application for a review of the court’s earlier judgement that pointed to a procedural error. The counsels contended that the court has acted outside its powers.
The attorney for Tamba and Andel, Kebba Sanyang, had strongly argued that the high court does not ordinarily review its own judgement, except in “limited circumstances”. He further argued that this case did not fall within that bracket.
The case resumes next month for the ruling.
According to one media report, some of the apartments at the Bitcoin Tower have been sold in cryptocurrency worth millions of dalasi, but Mr. Stofleth could not account for the proceeds. He reportedly told the police that the proceeds were lodged into his cryptocurrency wallets, but he refused investigators and his partners access.
