Investors entered into an agreement with a crypto entrepreneur for the purpose of establishing a solar farm for crypto mining in the USA and issuing a digital currency through a Gibraltarian company. After the entrepreneur emptied the company of its assets, the investors turned to the Israeli Court for compensation.
The Court held that the Court in Israel is the appropriate forum to adjudicate the matter. In order to determine what constitutes an appropriate forum, three main tests must be examined: the test of maximum affinity, the test of the reasonable expectations of the parties, and the test of public considerations. As for the test of the reasonable expectations of the parties, entities operating in various juridictions take into account that this entails risks, including the possibility of being sued in the jurisdictions in which they operate. Only when the balance between the affiliations to the forum in Israel and those to the foreign forum is clearly and significantly tilted in favor of the foreign forum will it be determined that the Israeli forum is not appropriate to adjudicate the issue. Here, the test of the most affinities showed that there are ties to both Israel and to other countries in the world in a manner that does not give a particular territory a clear preference. However, the test of reasonable expectation of the parties and the test of public considerations both lead to the preference of the forum in Israel, as the parties are both citizens of Israel, the correspondence between them was done in Hebrew, and the defendant was served within the boundaries of Israel. Therefore, there is nothing to prevent the matter from being heard in the Israeli Court, as it is a proper forum.