Gate.io Defies Four Chilean Court Orders Over 2023 BNB Hack

Local Traders says Gate.io has ignored four criminal court orders to return 379.2 BNB stolen in a 2023 hack, even after Apple pulled the exchange’s app from Chile. 

A Chilean crypto company is publicly accusing Gate.io of ignoring four final criminal court orders demanding the return of stolen funds. The case stretches back three years.

Local Traders, a Chilean firm operating under the $LCT token, posted a detailed thread on X this week laying out the full timeline. According to the account, 379.2 BNB was drained from their smart contract in 2023. A formal complaint was filed immediately with Chile’s PDI Cybercrime headquarters in Santiago.

The stolen assets passed through Tornado Cash. Blockchain forensics firm TRM Labs then traced the funds through every transaction hop, all the way to Gate.io, the thread states.

Gate Provided KYC, Then Asked for More

Chile’s PDI Cybercrime team contacted Gate.io directly. According to the thread’s second post, Gate provided KYC details of the account holder, identified as a Chinese citizen, then asked for a formal criminal court seizure order before taking further steps.

The case was forwarded to Chile’s Public Prosecutor. The prosecutor brought it before the 8th Juzgado de Garantia and secured a seizure order on 18 November 2024. Gate agreed to freeze the assets. But when asked to return them, the exchange demanded a separate order specifying exactly where the funds should be sent, as outlined in the third post of the thread.

That restitution order came on 27 February 2025. Then things stopped moving.

Post four of the thread states Gate began ignoring the request entirely. No response, no compliance, months passing. On 28 April 2025, Chile’s Public Prosecutor issued a formal five-day warning to comply. Gate ignored that too. On 8 May 2025, the court reiterated its order directly. Gate, according to the fifth post, ignored that order as well.

Four court orders. Zero compliance.

1,000 Emails, Complete Silence

Local Traders says the company sent over 1,000 emails, more than 500 direct messages, and filed over 1,000 support tickets across Gate’s various support channels. As detailed in post six, Gate’s support team initially said they were looking into the matter, then went completely silent.

Efforts extended to LinkedIn. Post seven states that Gate’s chief marketing officer Kevin Lee blocked Local Traders on LinkedIn after previously saying the matter was under review.

The Gate.io exchange has faced separate platform-related scrutiny before. This case, though, involves criminal court orders issued by a national judiciary, not platform-level disputes.

Lithuania Blocked Every Path

With no Gate physical presence in Chile, Local Traders identified Gate’s registered entity in Lithuania. Gate Global UAB. A local legal team was hired. A petition for recognition of the Chilean court orders was filed before the Lithuanian Court of Appeal.

As described in post eight, the Lithuanian court rejected the petition twice. First, for a missing certificate confirming the Chilean orders were final. Second, because Chile and Lithuania have no treaty for recognizing criminal court judgments. Thousands of dollars in apostille fees, translations, notarizations, and international postage spent. Both filings failed.

A criminal complaint was also filed against Gate’s CEO Han Lin with Lithuania’s Public Prosecutor. Post nine lays out the full rejection chain, ending 3 November 2025 when Lithuania’s Supreme Court declared no further appeal was possible.

This case sits within a wider pattern of compliance failures linked to crypto hacks across the industry, where stolen funds trace to exchanges but enforcement across borders remains difficult.

Apple Acted. Most Didn’t.

Local Traders escalated by filing reports with Apple, Google Play, Amazon Web Services, Sumsub, Fireblocks, and BitGo. As stated in post ten, Apple reviewed the evidence and suspended Gate’s application from the Chilean App Store. Google Play says it is still investigating. Sumsub, Fireblocks, and BitGo took no action. ICANN is also investigating under case number 01564436, looking into potential domain-level action against gate.com.

Gate’s first direct communication with Local Traders was not an offer to return funds. Through Chilean lawyers, the exchange sent a formal Cease and Desist letter demanding Local Traders stop reporting them to Apple, Google, regulators, and the public. Four court orders unaddressed. A cease-and-desist sent instead.

Post eleven describes Gate CEO Han Lin and marketing executive Kevin Lee publicly celebrating Gate’s 13th anniversary with Red Bull Racing while the orders remained unenforced. Gate’s support account posted a generic apology on X, asking Local Traders to send a DM for help.

Local Traders responded publicly. The reply, documented in post fourteen, noted over 300 emails sent over three years with no reply in the last eighteen months, that Gate’s own Chilean lawyers had been served every document, and that a DM would not resolve four unenforced court orders.

The post Gate.io Defies Four Chilean Court Orders Over 2023 BNB Hack appeared first on Live Bitcoin News.