Mt.Gox Case: Retrospective and Statement by Mark Karpelès

Let's talk a little about Mark Karpelès, the former boss of Mt.Gox, and his recent news. The latter published yesterday, on his blog, a long tirade on the subject. As a reminder, Mt. Gox was an exchange that suffered a big computer attack, "losing" over 800,000 BTC between 2011 and 2013.

The hacking of Mt. Gox

Mt. Gox was the largest bitcoin trading platform. Purchased in 2011 by Mark Karpelès, his future has been one of the most disastrous. After rumors of bitcoins disappeared increasingly insistent, the case of piracy is unveiled, there are 850 000 BTC missing. Gox closes on February 25, 2014. In March of the same year, the company signs its declaration of bankruptcy.

On March 20, 2014, Mt. Gox announced that it had recovered more than 200,000 bitcoins, the rest seemingly lost.

In 2017, one of the main suspects in the case was identified in the person of Alexander Vinnik.

Karpelès accused of fraud

While it was thought never to hear again, Mark Karpelès was arrested in August 2015 by the Japanese police, and accused of personal enrichment by the artificial creation of a million dollars, to the detriment of customers of its platform.

No connection with the piracy case, but Karpelès still spent a year in prison awaiting trial on July 18 of this year, where he pleaded not guilty. Case to follow.

VERY lucrative bankruptcy.

A little further, we told you about 200,000 bitcoins "found" by Mt. Gox. In this regard, nobody mentions the Bitcoin Cash that are necessarily associated ... But this is another subject - a subject to two billion all the same.

This "find" could be good news. In fact, the injured parties will be able to recover all the sums lost ... in yen. This is a bad surprise, it has actually been stipulated that the money can be recovered at the price of bitcoin at the time, about $ 400. The price has since been multiplied by 20. That could leave more than a billion profit in the pockets of the leaders.

Karpelès speaks

In a long post on his blog, Karpelès came back on this whole affair, and especially on the future of these 200 000 bitcoins. He recalled that he was not responsible, and that despite the skepticism (rather understandable) of the crypto community, he was not himself in possession of these bitcoins. Apparently, the whole would be stuck in the funds of the administration of Mt.Gox, but it would be possible to unblock, including bringing Mt.Gox to life.

This solution would be controversial, to say the least, but Karpelès makes it clear that he would be totally excluded from the administration of the company.