Bitcoin Forum

Mark Karpeles, the CEO of failed Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, has delivered his final comments at his trial for embezzlement and fraud. The trial, which has been taking place in Tokyo, has been running for over 6 months.

Karpeles, who denies the charges, has been on bail since 2017 and unable to leave Japan pending the result of this trial; he denies embezzlement. However, prosecutors are demanding a 10-year jail sentence for his oversight of the collapse of Mt. Gox. According to Japan Times earlier this month, Prosecutors told the Tokyo District Court that Mark Karpeles, 33, “diverted company funds for such uses as investing in a software development business for personal interest” and “played a great role in totally destroying the confidence of bitcoin users.”

Read More: https://coinlu.com/mt-gox-ceo-pleads-innocence-over-collapsed-exchange/

I doubt that 99 per cent conviction rate in Japan is going to do him many favours. Rather like Silk Road, I think there are many more revelations to come out of Gox in the years to come. I wonder whether he's sitting on them or he doesn't know himself.

i think karpeles could tell some interesting tales. i've always wondered if the gag order conspiracy theory (https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1z3gom/conspiracy_theory_mark_karpeles_is_under_a_9gag/) was real or not. around the time gox went offline, he said in a IRC chat "le gouv. US veut pas qu'on disclose hein---US gov doesnt want us to disclose". i figured it was related to silk road at the time. in fact, i remember wondering if the feds had taken control of gox's funds (because they were tied to the bitinstant/silk road cases).

Mark should be held responsible for some of the things that went wrong over there, because that one incident caused a lot of harm to 1000s of Bitcoin owners and the direct result of that caused a spinoff effect that created many butthurt coiners and also people talking trash about Bitcoin.

The combined affect of these shills and butthurt coiners, turned a lot of potential coiners, against Bitcoin. The media also had a field day with this and they nearly destroyed Bitcoin adoption.

Mark also had a bit of a God complex back then and he should have handled this a lot better.  >:(

Innocence means he'll admit to being an actual idiot, or at the very least, concede severe ignorance and negligence on his part. He's a bit too full of himself to let that happen, though. Big personalities mean big egos. They can't get over themselves even to escape some jail time. I've read his posts, his promises and his many words to express regrets. I've seen even his ICO joke attempts. He doesn't speak at all like an innocent man. Just because he didn't do things don't mean he wasn't culpable or responsible. He was the boss, after all.

Sure, he was probably not evil, probably meant well. But it turns out, most ponzi and scam operators started on a path full of good intentions.

One thing I hate about courts because they have to ask whether what an accused would plead. Of course someone who committed crime will deny involvement.
But this is where the investigators of bitcoin transactions are needed. If they can track transactions going to this software development business that is mentioned in the court, prove his connection to it then the possibility is closer.

He denies embezzlement even though all bitcoin transactions are on a public ledger. Using customer funds for personal gain without their knowledge or consent sounds like embezzlement to me, and to the judges