The former high-flying head of collapsed bitcoin exchange MtGox will learn his fate Friday as a Tokyo court hands down its verdict on charges of faking digital data and embezzling millions of dollars. Prosecutors have called for a 10-year jail sentence for French-born Mark Karpeles, 33, who
The former high-flying head of collapsed bitcoin exchange MtGox will learn his fate Friday as a Tokyo court hands down its verdict on charges of faking digital data and embezzling millions of dollars.
Prosecutors have called for a 10-year jail sentence for French-born Mark Karpeles, 33, who denies the charges.
Karpeles is alleged to have repeatedly manipulated computer data over several years while embezzling a total of 341 million yen ($3 million) of clients’ money deposited at the company.
Prosecutors claim he splashed the embezzled money on a 3D-printing software business unnecessary for MtGox, as well as on personal expenses, including some six million yen ($54,000) for a canopy bed.
He also spent millions of yen on arranging overseas trips for his estranged wife, as well as utility bills and cleaning services at his luxury apartment that he reportedly rented for 1.1 million yen per month, prosecutors allege.
MtGox was shut down in 2014 after 850,000 bitcoins (worth half a billion dollars at that time) disappeared from its virtual vaults, a mystery that remains unsolved.
The disappearance left a trail of angry investors, rocked the virtual currency community, and dented confidence in the security of bitcoin.
