Karpeles Facing Charges in Japan?

Mark Karpeles the CEO of the infamously defunct Mt. Gox is facing charges on fraud based on a
report released this week
. An anonymous translation of the report can be seen below:

In the case of the virtual currency exchange MtGox which lost a large amount of Bitcoin, the Metropolitan Police Department have decided to build a case against the failed operating company's CEO on charges of fraudulently producing and using private electromagnetic records, an official connected to the investigation revealed in an interview on the 30th. The CEO is suspected of fraudulently manipulating the system and inflating the Bitcoin balance of fake accounts.

The suspicions concern the French CEO of the exchange's operating company MTGOX (Tokyo/Shibuya) (currently under bankruptcy proceedings).

According to the official, as there are suspicions the CEO misappropriated deposited funds by fulfilling received Bitcoin buy orders from fake accounts, the Metropolitan Police Department are also looking into pursuing charges of corporate embezzlement.

Last year, such as during the press conference announcing the collapse, the CEO had explained it was likely external cyber attacks that were responsible for the disappearance of the roughly 650,000 Bitcoins (at the exchange rate of the 30th worth about 23 billion yen) that were in customer accounts and elsewhere.

However, this now means that very likely a portion of the Bitcoins previously considered missing were fake.
MtGox at one time held a 70% market share among the world's Bitcoin exchanges.

Last February, they applied for civil rehabilitation at the Tokyo District Court. In April of the same year, the District Court decided to commence bankruptcy proceedings.

Early in 2014 Karpeles was summoned by a US judge to appear for questioning in Dallas, Texas which some speculated was a thinly veiled attempt at extradition. However Japan is no longer a safe haven for Karpeles as this case will signify the first instance of an individual being charged in Japan for cryptocurrency crime.

Mark Karpeles who has been very vocal following the collapse of the exchange via Twitter and his blog has yet to comment on the pending charges.

One thought on “Karpeles Facing Charges in Japan?

  1. Do you think that the last little conspiracy post he put on his blog was just a smokescreen? Do you think he seen this coming and was trying to persuade the public into thinking the US Agents were involved with the disappearance of funds?

    It sure is a lot of fuckery involved here. Mark was actually starting to lose traction as 'most hated' with the surfacing of the agents' crimes.

    I can't wait for Season 2 of this drama to unfold with the pending trial.

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