Mark Karpelès faces up to five years in jail as Japanese authorities press charges in bankruptcy case that lost 850,000 bitcoins and $28m of user money
The 32-year-old head of failed bitcoin exchange Mt Gox pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges relating to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins and cash from what was once the world’s biggest exchange based in Japan.
Mt Gox, which handled around 80% of global bitcoin trades, shut down and went bankrupt in February 2014, saying that it had lost about 850,000 bitcoins – then worth around half a billion US dollars – and $28m (£22m) in cash from its Japanese bank accounts. The Tokyo-based Mt. Gox blamed hackers for its lost bitcoins, pointing to a software security flaw, but subsequently said it had found 200,000 of the missing bitcoins.
At a Tokyo District Court, French-born Mt Gox chief Mark Karpelès stands accused of embezzlement and data manipulation, including for accessing the exchange’s computer system to inflate his account by $1m and for transferring 341m yen ($3m) from a Mt Gox bank account holding customer funds to an account in his name during September to December 2013.
Karpelès was arrested in August 2015 and released on bail last year. He denied wrongdoing, telling the three-judge panel hearing his case that “I swear to God that I am innocent”. If found guilty of embezzlement, he could face up to five years in prison, or a fine of up to 500,000 yen ($4,000) .
