Thread: Bitcoin chief arrested in Japan

MtGox bitcoin chief Mark Karpeles arrested in Japan



Japanese police have arrested the CEO of the failed company MtGox, which was once the world's biggest exchange of the virtual currency, bitcoin.
Mark Karpeles, 30, is being held in connection with the loss of bitcoins worth $387m (£247m, €351m) last February.
He is suspected of having accessed the exchange's computer system to falsify data on its outstanding balance.
MtGox claimed it was caused by a bug but it later filed for bankruptcy.

Japan's Kyodo News said a lawyer acting on Mr Karpeles' behalf denied his client had done anything illegal.
Mr Karpeles, who was born in France, is suspected of benefiting to the tune of $1m (£640,000), the agency said.
In March 2014, a month after filing for bankruptcy, MtGox said it had found 200,000 lost bitcoins.
The firm said it found the bitcoins - worth around $116m - in an old digital wallet from 2011.
That brings the total number of bitcoins the firm lost down to 650,000 from 850,000.
That total amounts to about 7% of all the bitcoins in existence.
Bitcoin is a virtual currency built around a complicated cryptographic protocol and a global network of computers that oversees and verifies which coins have been spent by whom.

MtGox bitcoin chief Mark Karpeles arrested in Japan - BBC News

Does anyone actually own a Bitcoin or know anyone who does?

not me, not convinced about its security.
too many smart arses around who one day will be capable of hacking into wallets.

I don't even know what it is.

mtgox stands for / stood for " magic the gathering online exchange " which was about trading cards from a game - middle aged nerds picachu

you would have fit right in batty

Originally Posted by 9999

Here's a great doco that gives you the scoop....

sky ordered by high court to drop this vid.

this is what i got.

Originally Posted by billy the kid

sky ordered by high court to drop this vid.

wtf?? why?

with the kat.cr

Infringe the copyright or trademarks of other companies.

gives a list of address that have been blocked by the high court.

just downloaded it with no problems from kat.cr

Fresh arrest warrant to be served for MtGox CEO over bitcoin scandal

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Police are set to serve a fresh arrest warrant on the chief executive officer of the bankrupt MtGox Co. bitcoin exchange on Friday, suspecting he embezzled some 321 million yen worth of funds entrusted by clients, investigative sources said Thursday.

Mark Karpeles, who was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of manipulating virtual currency data to pad his own cash account, allegedly pocketed the clients' money in his company's bank account by transferring it elsewhere in October 2013, according to the sources.

The 30-year-old founder of the bitcoin exchange is believed to have spent 315 million yen of the embezzled money on obtaining the development and distribution rights of computer graphics software from a Tokyo firm and purchasing for his home a luxury canopy bed worth around 6 million yen, they said.

Karpeles, a French national, set up the business in 2011 and built it into the world's biggest bitcoin exchange. But the company incurred major losses and its debts exceeded assets in August 2013 after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seized its assets in U.S. bank accounts in around May 2013, prompting clients in the United States to withdraw money entrusted to MtGox in droves.

In February the following year, MtGox abruptly shut down all bitcoin transactions and filed for court protection, saying it had lost about 850,000 bitcoins, worth around 48 billion yen at the time, and around 2.8 billion yen in funds entrusted by clients.

MtGox kept customer and corporate funds in the same bank account, and the police deemed the cash used by Karpeles after the company's liabilities exceeded assets on its balance sheet as actually being the customers' funds.

Karpeles was arrested Aug. 1 on suspicion of manipulating computer data and increasing the outstanding balance of his dollar account within the virtual currency exchange in February 2013 by a total of $1 million.

Fresh arrest warrant to be served for MtGox CEO over bitcoin scandal - ????

I bought hundreds of Pokeyman cards for my son many years ago. Not long ago I was in the basement and found a crate of Majic cards. As Im trying to get rid of some stuff I called him on it.

He said but dad their Majic cards.

My response was well if they are make them dissappear!

If only he had a virtual wallet.