LAS VEGAS — A federal judge has partially granted Oron's motion to withdraw funds for business expenses and legal fees, but the amount is far less than what the file-locker site's operators had been hoping for.
U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro agreed with Corbin Fisher attorneys that Oron didn't provide any itemization or accounting for the court to consider and allowed it to withdraw only $100,000 to keep the site afloat and pay off lawyers.
Oron had been asking the court to withdraw $350,000 in funds from a PayPal account.
"[Oron] filed a motion for additional funds, but the court will only consider such a motion if it is accompanied by an itemization specifying which funds are requested and for what purpose," Navarro said in her ruling. "This request should be accompanied by an affidavit verifying the amounts requested, their current location and their intended use."
Navarro further stated that the temporary restraining order against Oron does not prevent the file-locker website's operators from withdrawing funds from its Hong Kong accounts as authorized by the Hong Kong High Court to pay its legal fees and business expenses.
Gay adult company Corbin Fisher last week sued operators of Oron.com, alleging they had knowledge of and induced the trading of pirated porn on its site.
PayPal, AlertPay and CCBill were ordered to freeze Oron accounts; VeriSign also was ordered to freeze the Oron.com domain name from any transfers. In addition, Navarro ordered Oron to preserve and restore financial documents key to the case.
At the same time, Corbin Fisher served Oron in Hong Kong with an injunction prohibiting disposal of assets in Hong Kong. In the Hong Kong order, Oron operators were enjoined from disposing or diminishing in value of its assets up to $3 million.
In the ruling today, Navarro also ruled on several other motions.
Navarro denied Oron's request to advance a preliminary injunction hearing date to Friday, but granted a motion to extend Oron's time for briefing schedule relative to the TRO.
The federal judge ordered that the amended order freezing all U.S. accounts continues in effect until a hearing in the case.
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, July 10, at 2:30 p.m. at U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.