Bitcoin Forum

Japan charges Bitcoin exchange CEO with embezzlement (http://news.yahoo.com/japan-charges-bitcoin-exchange-ceo-embezzlement-jiji-press-041756154.html)

When is he going to dump all his coins..lo1

Anybody have any idea about what kind of punishment he could face if found guilty on those charges?

Well, if they let him out of jail on bail like when he was changed in France for another crime but skipped outta the continent, he may very well skip to another continent and be sentenced in absentia, once again, thus that'll be his punishment. He'll be forced to live off the ONLY hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins that's still unaccounted for. HAHAHA Take that, Mark Karpeles! You'll forever live in misery.

I know that they've been taking their time with this, but you've gotta have respect for the Japanese, at least they're actually doing something about him, because most government employees in other countries barely even touch a computer anyone else would just ignore it and hope it goes away.

If you really want to know then here's what looks like their penal code - http://www.cas.go.jp/jp/seisaku/hourei/data/PC.pdf

Was actually just looking for a 'ballpark' idea of what he was facing but thanks, will see if I find anything in there but guess the final punishment decided on will in large depend on the particular circumstances.

Random googling shows up a couple of results that say you can't get more than ten years for theft. No idea whether that's true or not and I'm not sure what his exact formal charge will be.

I wonder whether being in jail will actually register in his autistic mind.

The following is from the document you posted, not sure they will all apply though, just posting here for interest....

Hopefully he'll have a blast in prison.

He pumped Bitcoin to $1000+ by doing fake trades and bitcoiners still hate him? Weird people...

Well... almost all Mt.Gox users never got their btc or fiat out. Some btc users were entirely wiped out.
When things like that happen in the "real" world, people usually jump off buildings.

Let's not forget he allegedly stole thousands of bitcoin and hid them, gox users lost millions because of him. He deserves his time in jail until he returns the money.

Well I hope he won't have an acces to the computer and an Internet connection in the jail! :)

On the serious note, I am sure he will get some serious time. Japan is not joking with prison times. When you screw up over there, you will pay, just like in the US.

He does deserve all that is coming to him. Incompetent and crook at the same time. What a combination!

He's getting what he deserves for being negligent with customers funds and having no security at all with the coins held...

Same old story: hope he doesn't misplace his soap in prison like he did with customers coins.

Mark single-handedly pumped bitcoin to $1000+? Color me impressed. And all this time, I thought there was legitimate demand for bitcoin. >:(

I think the price action on Huobi in 2013 was a hell of a lot more telling than that of Mt Gox. Agree to disagree.

Don't start making salient points backed up with evidence. We don't like that type of thing round these parts.

Kinda. http://www.coindesk.com/bot-named-willy-did-mt-goxs-automated-trading-pump-bitcoin-price/

Thanks for sharing.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/B1u6Ls6_TRY/maxresdefault.jpg
"In Japan, when a Willy drops the soap, the others yell, "Malleability attack!" Catchy phrase, if you ask me, so let's see if we can adopt such here in the States."

Most countries give you a reduced sentence for pleading guilty, and the chance for further reductions in your sentence for good behavior inside. Sometimes criminals get released on parole half way through their sentence. I don't know if Japan uses that system, but if it does he might only serve a few years if he's found guilty. Remember Nick Leeson, the derivatives broker whose fraudulent trading lost Barings Bank $1.4 billion. He was only sentenced to six and a half years, and he got out early.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox#Insolvency_and_shutdown

On 23 February 2014, Mark Karpelès, the CEO of Mt. Gox, resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation. The same day, all posts on their Twitter account were removed.

On 24 February 2014, Mt. Gox suspended all trading, and hours later its website went offline, returning a blank page. An alleged leaked internal crisis management document claimed that the company was insolvent, after losing 744,408 bitcoins in a theft which went undetected for years. Six other major bitcoin exchanges released a joint statement distancing themselves from Mt. Gox, shortly before Mt. Gox's website went offline.

On 25 February 2014, Mt. Gox reported on its website that a "decision was taken to close all transactions for the time being", citing "recent news reports and the potential repercussions on MtGox's operations". The chief executive, Mark Karpelès, told Reuters that Mt. Gox was "at a turning point".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Leeson

this is great news.  i am very happy about it going in the right direction.  at first people said he would be able to get away with it in japan with their anything goes crypto policies.  i wonder how this turns out.

For those BTC that Mark holds he will serve his time in jail like on a resort and will quit still having hundreds of millions of dollars.

So he still has a load of coins?

Seems so, he was living in very expensive apartment.

Well, I will send him this gift when he gets sentenced ---> http://www.tattooedtealady.com/2014/09/soap-glory-kick-ass-instant-retouch.html .... powdered soap takes

longer to pick up, when you drop it in the shower.  ::) .... And for bed time, some of this ---> http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_g7KcbMxmLEU/R2iKFU_YWuI/AAAAAAAACsI/Zvxt0EaXLlw/s1600/ky_jelly_300.jpg

Let's hope the prison warders know nothing about Bitcoin, otherwise he will have a great time inside there with our coins.  :o

As with almost every aspect of this whole thing, only Mark knows.

Plus court ordered restitution (for whatever that's worth). Gox users will never be compensated but hopefully they can get some satisfaction in knowing that a large portion of the meager wages Karpeles will make in prison and thereafter will be taken from him. But ya, hopefully he serves legit time.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2983448/mt-gox-chief-charged-with-embezzling-bitcoin-funds.html

Great point.  Mt. Gox's estate owes me $5k in fiat for a wire they never sent, but no BTC because I pulled what I had with them and potentially on the auction block before they went tits-up.  The $5k is peanuts compared to the benefit I realized by selling near the high.  If Krapholes is responsible for that 4-figure blip he did me a giant favor and I'd be inclined to just let him have the $5k and give him a hearty thanks.

For some reason I was not at all upset over my loss here while normally such things drive me into a foaming rage.  Part of it was that when I decided to take a chance on the $5k wire I gave it relatively high odds of failure.  Another part may have been a gut sense that Mt. Gox's activities had served me quite well though I don't think that the analysis of their trading bots was released until some time after they had suffered a very obvious implosion.  Another part which I have yet to shake is that I sense that the U.S. corp/gov authorities had more than a little involvement in the nature and timing of the events and that there is more to the story than simplistic embezzlement, although it seems not unlikely that multiple parties independently saw 'hundreds of millions' of reasons to pressure him.  Time will tell perhaps.  If Mark ended up 'suicided' I would not be surprised in the least though as an observation supporting one hypothesis or another it would not be all that valuable.

Japan you only need to pay a fine when found guilty of any economic crime. You can also agree to only pay 10% of the fine and work out a deal for future restitution in payments, at which point Karpeles can take the first flight out of the country. There will be no forced Seppuku, jail time or led around in the back of a horse cart in a cage where the public can throw rotten vegetables at him. At least he will be forever hated in Japan as dishonorabru if he bails on the fine