Bitcoin Forum

*DJ Mt. Gox Lawyer: Accepted By Tokyo District Court
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
February 28, 2014 04:34 ET (09:34 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 04 34 AM EST 02-28-14

*DJ Mt. Gox Lawyer: Outstanding Debt Y6.5B
*DJ Mt. Gox Lawyer: Missing Bitcoin May Have Been Withdrawn Through System
*DJ Mt. Gox Lawyer: 750,000 Bitcoin Held by Clients, 100,000 Held by Mt. Gox Mostly Missing
*DJ Mt. Gox Lawyer: Mt. Gox Assets Y3.84B
*DJ Mt. Gox Lawyer: Will Cooperate With Japanese Authorities Into Investigating What Happened
*CALL CENTER WILL BE SET UP FOR MT. GOX CUSTOMERS
*MT. GOX CEO MARK KARPELES APOLOGIZES AFTER FIRM'S BANKRUPTCY

On Bloomberg, when the whole story is available I will edit

DJ Mt. Gox Files for Bankruptcy Protection





By Eleanor Warnock and Takashi Mochizuki
     TOKYO--A lawyer for Mt. Gox announced at a news conference at the Tokyo
District Court that the embattled bitcoin exchange was filing for bankruptcy
protection and that Mt. Gox had outstanding debt of about Yen6.5 billion ($63.6
million).
     The exchange has been under fire from investors since it stopped bitcoin
withdrawals in early February, citing a technical issue that potentially made
fraudulent withdrawals possible.
     On Tuesday, Mt. Gox, which at one point handled more than 80% of trades in
the virtual currency, stopped all transactions, dealing the severest blow to
the bitcoin industry yet and raised concerns about a lack of protection for
users. Several Mt. Gox investors say they have little hope of recovering their
funds, with some individual investors saying they had bitcoins valued at
hundreds of thousands of dollars in Mt. Gox.
     Atsuko Fukase contributed to this article
     Write to Eleanor Warnock at eleanor.warnock@wsj.com and Takashi Mochizuki
at takashi.mochizuki@wsj.com
 
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  February 28, 2014 04:50 ET (09:50 GMT)
  Copyright (c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 04 50 AM EST 02-28-14
 
-----------------------------====================------------------------------
                              Copyright (c) 2014

Doesn't that mean some hope for people looking to glean something back from gox?

Thanks! Keep us informed!  :)

We might have to clarify what "outstanding debt" actually means, and if it translates over to "total liabilities" or a more accurate description of the discrepancy on customer holdings there.

If true, this is drastically lower than expected, which almost makes me think the 750k BTC number was orchestrated to be ridiculously high.  /tinfoil hat

is there any one who knows about japanese bankprucy laws?

http://twitpic.com/photos/nobodyhelpme

Nope.

Remember the crisis document said 50% of the bailout funds needed had been acquired... Perhaps that's what this means?

*DJ Mt. Gox Lawyer: 750,000 Bitcoin Held by Clients, 100,000 Held by Mt. Gox Mostly Missing
*DJ Mt. Gox Lawyer: Missing Bitcoin May Have Been Withdrawn Through System

THis is new MEME material.

http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/841295847.jpg?1393581448

photoshoppers, knock yourself out.

ALL YOUR BITCOIN ARE BELONG TO US.

Is this simply a statement or are any questions being asked?

I think it is just a statement

*MT. GOX CEO MARK KARPELES APOLOGIZES AFTER FIRM'S BANKRUPTCY

Karpeles is now speaking in Bankruptcy court

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1z62xt/mt_gox_lawyer_says_65_billion_yen_debt_65_million/   <-- got deleted

Thanks for your real-time updates!!

thanks for updates
i'm curious about what happening then after investigation :D

www.cnbc.com/id/101455170

I want to know where every single one of those missing 750k Bitcoin have gone to.

MtGox should publish full details of all their compromised cold storage wallet addresses so we can see what happened.

Right now for all I know Mark simply decided to keep all the coins for himself - he needs to prove he didn't do this.

http://s28.postimg.org/69s6ujo4t/gox_bankrupt.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

He is just adorable!  :D

https://i.imgur.com/2MoGOIz.jpg

They can't.
I had a contact that was contracted by MtGox few months ago, and she said that some critical logs were kept in memory for fast access and no persistent storage was  used.

Not a chance in hell of MtGox releasing any further financial information without explicit approval at the moment, especially not with government investigations in progress.

The cold wallets and much of MT Gox fiat funds are being held by the US government. This is continued fall out from SR and Bitinstant.



http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/1z2xo5/speculation_the_us_government_has_control_of_goxs/

If the Government is left continue as they wish without the community voicing opposition.

The best outcome is that those who cannot be connected with SR will eventually get their BTC back.

The worst outcome is that the government won't give anyones BTC back.

Additionally JP Morgan is involved in trying to destroy Mt Gox /Mark and even the Bitcoin economy. The Bitcoin community needs to come together as one in this time of need. They are trying to divide and conquer us.

Can someone explain please what's "bankrupty protection" about?
Does it mean he wants Japanese taxpayers to pay off his debt?

It just means that no one can individually sue MtGox.  Everyone will have to get in line for their cut of what's left (not that it matters, because it sounds like there's nothing left).

But I still hope for some kind of deal with MtGox in which they would slowly pay their customers back in the future.

I know it's not how corporations work. I just wish this one is still different.

Mark is not an evil guy, and I believe that he would chose what's best for depositors.

It is important to remember. They have filed for bankruptcy protection not bankruptcy. If you want to know who has the cold wallet(s) with the 750k+ bitcoins you need to lodge an FOI with the US Government.

Mark is under a gag order and cannot give out this information himself.

i m not sure of what you are talking about

his company is in japan and follows japan rules.us gag orders or else are not effective there.

and also abankrupcy protection plan is done when a comapny is not able to pay it s bills/creditorst.the plan freezes all debtors and creditors and give time to the administrator in charge to come with a solution within a certain amount of time.

if the solution doesnt suits suitable then we go to the liquidation of the assets and redistribution


this is how it s works in real word

Looking at the numbers they basically have half the liquid cash to be able to pay everyone back. So in an ideal world everyone would get 1/2 what they are owed, which is a lot better than nothing.

But it doesn't really break it down into whether thats just cash, or includes Bitcoins, and if so at what exchange rate? The $100ish that MtGox was, or the average value on other exchanges at that date?

Also administrators will eat a huge chunk on the money, and generally the biggest creditors will get dealt with first leaving anyone with normal sums of money screwed over.

People who have bitcoins, lost them completely.  Everyone who sold to cash will get 50%.   They are considered property, not money, and property isn't "priced" at some exchange rate.  Although, it's possible that the courts will look at this unique case with some open mindedness.   That is why people fire sold all the way down to $90 on Gox!  Those were the people in the know.  Everyone else was living in denial.

This is further fall out from SR. A lot of money was laundered through bitinstant and mtgox and then into SR. Marks biggest concern as he stated in the IRC chat log was not hackers but banks and governments.

BTW http://www.differencebetween.net/business/difference-between-bankruptcy-and-bankruptcy-protection/

The bankruptcy protection to help them avoid all the lawsuits. Currently Mark is fighting a battle on multiple fronts. It actually must feel like everyone in the world is against him both the Government and the community he is part of. In reality the damage to  Mt Gox and the bitcoin community was caused by the government. The government is then using this fallout as an excuse to crack down on and control bitcoin.

I hope people understand what I am saying here. We have to work with Mark not against him and we have to somehow convince the US government to release the cold wallet(s) so that MtGox bitcoin holders can get their funds back.

While people are frustrated that Mark has been so very vague with the information the problem is actually that he is under a gag order.

As for the US having jurisdiction in Japan I can't answer that one for you but likely the Japanese government put out a big welcome mat for them. 

it seems you didn t get it

there is nothing remain in btc with mtgox

the government doesnt have anything to do with this unless you say the gvt did the hacking (as it seems they used to do now with nsa,and gchq of uk)

and have stolen all the btc....

Post them here so we can keep track.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=477704.msg5426443#msg5426443

They physically seized the cold wallets and put Mark under a gag order. There is no way that 750k+ bitcoins could have been stolen without being noticed. Mark was always strongly against the idea of running fractional reserve and there was monthly account auditing. 90%+ of the BTC was kept in cold storage in case of a hack.

There is no way that Mark would have stolen them himself how the hell would he get away with it?

We need a cartoon or something to show this. Mark with a gag over his mouth and on the left the US government holding a gun to his head while bankers and drug cartel bosses rub their hands together and hold the missing bitcoin while the angry mtgox bitcoin holders and their lawyers attack him from the right-hand side with pitch forks and heads filled with mis information and FUD spread by JP Morgan lackies and their hired online trolls and enforced by the corporate media.

I myself can't draw but if I could that's what I would draw. Can someone help with this drawing?

FUD FUD FUD, you have no proof that uncle sam took the cold wallets.

Mark still claims what he likes, they are his lawyers. This is not a court ruling.

This actually sounds pretty plausible, and the more I read the reddit post, the more convinced of it I'm becoming. I mean, who's better at stealing from people than the US government??

If true, I'd have to take back all the nasty things I've said about Mark.  :-\

I think you are very deluded and it's probable that most of the theft happened at a time when the bitcoins were much lower in value and Gox never came out about it.

Please link the public monthly audit documents signed by an authorized accounting firm and sign a message with the private keys from the cold storage Gox accounts showing a balance of BTCs and I will shut up.

No but many intelligent members of the community have researched and sleuthed this and read between the lines with every shed of information they have been able to get about MtGox as well as all the information and events
that happened in lead-up to this. Remember that MtGox users and Bit-instant staff have been under investigation due to connections to SR. We do have a precedent for this as the US Gov seized the SR wallets and the wallets of other dealers after this. In their power trip they have also seized the entire collection of MtGox cold wallets as well as all the data. We will probably see further busts and arrests.

This is why Mark is under a gag order. If he let the word out it would tip off people that are currently under investigation.

The hope is that after the dust settles people that weren't dealing or buying drugs on SR and other black markets or involved in any other  crimes will get their BTC back. However I suspect we won't get the bitcoin back without a fight.

Unfortunately some elements of the financial establishment want to become dominant players in future of cryptocurrency and want to package this together with tighter regulation. Regulation that favors the existing financial establishment and make it almost impossible for small players to enter the market.

Remember the banks and the drugs cartels have a vested interest in crushing threats to their financial dominance such as bitcoins and markets like SR.

However in the future drug cartels will use cryptocurrencies instead of mountains of cash.

+1

THIS!

Emphasis: mine.

I don't have those. I really wish I did! I would also like to get all the documents from LE leaked in regards to investigation into bitcoin since SR.

In the meantime I can link this to reddit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/1z2xo5/speculation_the_us_government_has_control_of_goxs/

+1 What people are doing to Mark and MtGox employees is downright bullying and harassment. Even Cyber bullying is really hurtful but some people are stalking him and MtGox employees and their families in real life. This can not be tolerated. If we want to show the world that we are enlightened and civilized we need to give the people at MtGox the benefit of the doubt and do everything we can to resolve this mess for all people invested and involved. We need to step past all the anger and the blindless caused by that anger work on real solutions. Our enemies have been working to divide us and try to make us destroy each other.

No one would of disagreed with you
Had this not all been back room bullshit, kill withdraw's, but allowing deposit's. keeping the exchange open. etc.

A massive joke he turned it into, tight lipped, deleting his twitter feed.

He brought the hate upon himself with how he reacted to the situation.

stop being a mtgox shill, what happened so far is absolutely despicable.  He had treated his customer with contempt.  US gov't & transaction malleability are contributing factor to losses but the whole operation has been an absolute joke!

there are people who have lost millions because of him what are you expect to do in this case?

not ask any question and accept that this bastard has make disappear your whole life savings?

i mean there is a lady in singapore who suicided because of him....

and also he kept lying to customers until the last day

You could have stopped there. You have no idea of what you are speaking about. If the coins were seized we would know and no gag order in the world would stop us from finding out. The coins were stolen and mismanaged and that's all there is to it.

That kind of piss-poor reasoning makes you sound like a troll. Your statement is like this "You don't know what you're talking about! Things happened the way I say because I say so. I don't need any evidence!!"

That's pretty classical logical fallacy, troll-like behavior. Just the kind of talk you'd expect from a bankster/govt troll. Your posts actually prop up the theory you're trying to dismiss.

OK I agree with you that I need more evidence and damn it I hope to find it.

I'm not a shrill for mtgox. I have bitcoin in there and would like to see them back in my own local wallet. I hoped that this angle actually gave us hope of recovering our bitcoins and explained Marks recent behavior.

I know that a lot of the ways mtgox has been run has caused a lot of issues and problems but then again there have been huge problems with other major platforms and online services (ICQ, hotmail, facebook, Windows). Insufficient DDoS protection, trading engines that struggle under the load of media generated public hysteria. Banking delays and frozen funds and so on. Many of the problems were outside of Marks control but others he could have done better.

This doesn't mean that he lost or stole all the bitcoins though. Yes people have pent up anger and frustration because of issues they had with the platform but there are other bigger factors at play here. You don't start a revolution and expect the establishment to give up that easily.

The truth can be a tough pill to swallow in a tragic situation like this, but you just have to learn from your mistakes and move on.  I think you'll be very lucky if you get 50% of your funds reimbursed within a year.  You can cross your fingers and hope for the best, but expect the worst.

Actually, just because some super-sleuth reddit internet trolls have an idea does not mean it makes sense or has any validity.

you said"
This actually sounds pretty plausible, and the more I read the reddit post, the more convinced of it I'm becoming. I mean, who's better at stealing from people than the US government??
"

The answer to your question is hackers and you will see when all the dust settles that the cold wallets have not been seized by the feds.

Furthermore, I'd like to know how "plausible" it is for the feds to slap a gag order on Mark, seize his coins, have the world hunting him, stalking him, his employees, outside his office, threats on the forum ect and Mark just stays quiet.. Not to mention going bankrupt, having the Manhattan DA investigating him ect ect ect ect ect.


I don't think he would go through all that. He would just spill the beans., It would have leaked if that was the case because in the end it would have been easy to prove if it had happened, which it did not.

The coins were stolen, and that's all there is to it.

where's the evidence they were stolen? stop with this bullishit, the blockchain is there, like an open book. show us how/when there were stolen and where did they go.

+100 Internets

We don't know what happened to the coins, its better to stop coming to conclusions as its presumptuous to do so.

Making claims that you do know make it seem to others that you have a clear agenda and you are trying to push it on everyone instead of them thinking for themselves. Don't be a shill.

my favorite so far. :)

"*DJ Mt. Gox Lawyer: 750,000 Bitcoin Held by Clients, 100,000 Held by Mt. Gox Mostly Missing"

this statement is not very clear

750,000 Bitcoin Held by Clients =     Mostly Missing ? or still held by client ?
100,000 Held by Mt. Gox Mostly Missing  = about 2000 left ?

 (extended translation)


"AND FUCK YOU ALL! YOU IDIOTS... AND STOP SENDING MONEY TO ME! I WILL ANSWER NO QUESTIONS UNTIL IAM IN JAIL AND GET MY FRAUDOCHINO!"


wow , cant believe that he is so honest now  :o !

i don t know if i have posted this here:

but how can you make disappear 30 m usd from your account without your bank or your accountant knows?

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140228_45.html

In one source I have read that it was 120,000 bitcoins held my MtGox missing. So what's the exactly amount?

I found an article which argues the points a better than I seem capable of.

http://chrispacia.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/this-is-what-most-likely-happened-to-mtgox/

for example:

This person posted the story of his one-man protest out front of MtGox and his run in with Gay-Bouchery on Reddit.

His first question to Gay-Bouchery was, “What is causing the withdrawal delays?”

His response:


    • Well, because Gox is the best known of all the exchanges, we have been under the regulatory spotlight.

    • This has created problems with government agencies, and also with our banking partners.

    • There are also some ongoing investigations, which we cannot talk about.



and...
To the extent MtGox lost BTC due to malleability it was likely only a small amount. Not 97% of all BTC.
Karpeles made an effort to fix the code and get withdrawals back online as soon as possible, but it quickly became apparent there was no way he could cover the BTC needed to satisfy the requests.
Karpeles takes MtGox offline still unable to disclose exactly the source of its problems.
Karpeles reaches out to Bitcoin industry insiders for a bailout but can only tell them he doesn’t have the BTC and doesn’t disclose why. The insiders freak and notify Coinbase, Blockchain, etc. of the insolvency. They proceed to release a joint statement.

so yes the theory is that , US Federal officers demanded access to MtGox safety deposit boxes and seized the contents....

I have no evidence of this and it remains a theory but frankly most of the other stories don't completely add up either. We need to know the truth.

How exactly am I supposed to prove this?

The main thing I want to say though is that all people are innocent until proven guilty.

I would also like to say that I object to bitcointalk users acting more like a lynch mob attacking Mark on the one hand and victim blaming Mt Gox BTC holders on the other.

It is impossible for us to win if we are divided.

While the other bitcoin leaders (and exchange operators) have betrayed Mark and tried to distance themselves from him in his hour of need they have unfortunately sided with the enemies of our movement.

I can remember when moonco.in (early solidcoin 1 exchange) was hacked and many people were screaming for the exchange operators blood as they thought he had done a runner with all the bitcoin. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt though and I remember thinking (and possibly writing) "Do not crucify the exchange operator." 

Now more than ever I see this as important.

http://i60.tinypic.com/15wm1ed.jpg

Probably the cleaning lady threw out the paper wallet that had half a billion in bitcoin stored in it. In the end end it will be something like that or a hardware failure, inside job or programming screw up.

Michael Bolton: I must have put a decimal point in the wrong place or something. Shit, I always do that. I always mess up some mundane detail.

I'm constantly amazed at peoples inability to read other people. You just have to look at Karpeles face!! I would not trust him to feed my cat let alone with my money.

Here's the video, Mark explaining what happened in japanese

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeuCuM9CkBc

Agreed +100000   

I wouldn't trust that fat fuck to pick up my dogs shit.

All of us whant to know where every single one of those missing 750k Bitcoin have gone to. That's too much to be lost!

That's easy. They are in the public blockchain ledger.

Of course they are... Now how long do we have to wait until mtgox reports all their cold wallet address to sustain the claim that they were solvent at least in the end of 2013, and see where and how did all of those coins move out of its control?

Just show me where the 750K BTC where in the blockchain before (IF) losing control of all them. If they can't point to them, they never had them or, more likely, ran with them and doesn't want everybody to ran after them.

This nonsense about the "magically missing" BTC must stop already. Just point when/where did it happen.

TL;DR: First thing mtgox have to do is publish a report of all their cold wallet addresses showing an aggregate balance of around 750K BTC at some point in time in the past. That's the first thing to prove before talking about missing/stolen/temporarily unavailable coins.

I found this: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2014/03/03/exclusive-tibanne-co-ltd-sentenced-2013-mark-karpeless-lies-new/

Maybe we should ask US federal agencies if they have seized Mt Gox assets in any form and see if they deny, confirm or refuse to say.

How would be go about asking them?

Fuck this article, it´s BS
If i told you mark stole some candy in first grade, it could change what do you think about mark or mtgox situation??

Umm I really just honestly would like to see this mess cleaned up. If we can get the bitcoins back to their rightful owners somehow that would be awesome.

I hope you agree with me. If you are happier to call this "digital Darwinism" or something similar and call it "good for bitcoin" I beg to differ.

100% agree !
But their is no information here !
Anybody working in webdesign as to face this soon or later. Happend all the time.
Who care !
In business now and for the last 20 years, if you have never facing a trail just mean you have made no fucking business.
Sad but true.
Make a paralel : a little story like this with the actual shitstorm, what a joke.

Mark running with the money is just totally BS, why on earth run with the money, purchassed by FBI, interpol, btc community, etc instead of running the compagny to earn that on max 10 years !
Make no sens to me..
He just got married, a child...
His life is ruined buy now.
Maybe he make a php error, gox was weak, hacker fly with all btc. I have no idea !!
But mark running with the 750K is the less probable plot.
CCN just want cliks for add revenue, It's a good title ! who care if it's true or non-relevant

Wow, wasn't expecting this. Surprised the price hasn't fallen because of it.

http://pastebin.com/jES4zEuf

April 12, 2013 Mtgox starts an AMA on reddit.  States 90-95% of coins are cold storage and does not run a fractional reserve. (either we assume he is solvent here or he’s been running a fractional reserve since June 2011’s hack)
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1c7ahh/we_are_mt_gox_ama/c9dpwct
https://www.facebook.com/MtGox/posts/443093862439476 (proof of date of AMA)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=23938.msg1177353#msg1177353 (security practices dated 9/10/12)

May 14, 2013 Mtgox’s dwolla account is seized by Dept of Homeland Security for violating money transfer regulations.  (it is revealed in Nov 2013 that the real motivation for the seizure was part of a larger operation to take down Silk Road)
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/16/mt-gox-dwolla-account-money-seizure/
http://thegenesisblock.com/mt-gox-seizures-linked-silk-road-fed-testimonies/

May 30, 2013 Mtgox now requires all users who deposit or withdraw fiat to verify their accounts.
“Until now, Mt. Gox has tried to strike a careful balance between anonymity and money laundering laws, allowing anyone making trades under $1,000 to do so without a verified account and only demanding identification for larger trades. “
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/16/mt-gox-dwolla-account-money-seizure/

October 2, 2013 Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR) is arrested and Silk Road is shut down.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2013/10/02/feds-shut-down-silk-road-owner-known-as-dread-pirate-roberts-arrested/

Dec 20, 2013 Three Silk road 2.0 employees are arrested in a global coordinated crackdown on the darkweb drug marketplace.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/12/20/at-least-two-moderators-of-the-silk-road-2-0-drug-site-forums-arrested/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/12/20/feds-indict-three-more-alleged-employees-of-the-silk-roads-dread-pirate-roberts/

Dec 21, 2013 131,000 bitcoin days destroyed.
https://blockchain.info/charts/bitcoin-days-destroyed-min-year?showDataPoints=false&show_header=true&daysAverageString=1&timespan=&scale=0&address=
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1tfcad/there_were_an_awful_lot_of_bitcoin_days_destroyed/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=Fancy+Show+Tech

Jan 26, 2014 Charlie Shrem is arrested for money laundering for Silkroad using his company Bitinstant in connection with Mtgox.
“Shrem then filled the orders by transferring funds into an account controlled by Faiella and hosted on a third-party, Japan-based Bitcoin exchange. Together the two allegedly sold over $1 million in bitcoins to Silk Road users,”
http://business.time.com/2014/01/27/bitinstant-ceo-charlie-shrem-arrested-for-alleged-money-laundering/
 
Jan 30, 2014 date of meeting between Japanese Mizuho bank and Karpeles.  Karpeles acknowledges Bitinstant users are being investigated and that he's investigating money laundering cooperatively with us gov.  Banking representative informs Karpeles they will be closing his Mtgox account soon.  Karpeles asks why since he is following all rules and regulations but receives vague answers.  Jan 30, fits the timeline of banking issues after Shrem got arrested.
http://picosong.com/Y7di/ (original audio) (audio file was leaked anonymously on March 3, 2014)
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1zepgt/mark_apparently_leaked_conversation_with_a_bank/cft1kgq (japanese conversation is translated)

Sometime between Feb 1- Feb 24 DOJ issues subpoena to Mtgox.  http://www.businessinsider.com/report-mtgox-subpoenaed-by-us-prosecutor-2014-2
 
Feb 5, 2014  former bitinstant users are now required by gox to verify id by mailing notarized documents by mail to Japan.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1wyrdu/mt_goxs_ridiculous_new_documentation_requirements/

Feb 5, 2014 reddit user ‘coinsearcher’ flies to Mtgox headquarters and confronts Gonzague Gay Bouchery to question where his bitcoins are.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1x9gue/my_protest_at_mtgox_offices_5_to_7th_february

coinsearcher tells us his attorney friend sent him info suggesting the US authorities is ‘squeezing’ Mtgox.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1x9gue/my_protest_at_mtgox_offices_5_to_7th_february/cfberiu

Feb 6, 2014 135,000 bitcoin days destroyed an unusually large transfer of coins (potentially to the DOJ?)
https://blockchain.info/charts/bitcoin-days-destroyed?timespan=30days&showDataPoints=false&daysAverageString=1&show_header=true&scale=0&address=

coinsearcher adds more detail on his conversation with Gonzague further implying there is a criminal investigation that is related to the inability to release bitcoins for withdrawal.
“If you look at the bitcoin days destroyed in the weeks / days leading up to the withdrawal suspension, there are two huge spikes. If you assume these coins moved had a medium age of 1 year, you get almost 730,000 BTC. i.e. divide the total days destroyed by 365. https://blockchain.info/charts/bitcoin-days-destroyed-min-year” (first spike was Dec 21, 2013 the day after SR2.0 arrests)
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1z3ld0/rbitcoin_markets_the_us_government_has_control_of/cfqn1zr?context=3
 
Feb 7, 2014  user is locked out of his account for previously using bitinstant, he needs to get id verification.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=453760.0

Feb 7, 2014 Mtgox stops all bitcoin withdrawals citing technical problems. (note that this is the day after the massive bitcoins days destroyed)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140224133422/https://www.mtgox.com/press_release_20140207.html

Feb 10, 2014 Mtgox issues press release that TX malleability is causing the bitcoin withdrawal problem.  They blame the protocol.  Bitcoin experts have stated the protocol is fine.  Gox’s internal code is sloppy thus causing the problem.  (This is a possible stalling tactic of Mtgox)
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2014/02/10/mt-gox-blames-bitcoin-core-developer-greg-maxwell-responds/

Feb 15, 2014 Bruce Fenton (potential investor) contacted Karpeles to offer capital and help to fix the exchange to get it running.  Financial statements were given to Fenton but the deal did not move forward.  Karpeles gave no indication that coins were missing.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1z6phy/my_conversation_with_mark_from_mt_gox_my/

Feb 15, 17, 19, 20 2014 Mtgox website announces will be working on restoring withdrawals soon, eventually moves due to ‘security issues’ and more delays.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140221015037/https://support.mtgox.com/home

Feb x, 2014  crisis pdf is circulated among potential bailout investors (secondmarket, winklevoss?, Circle?).  I've been told the crisis strategy pdf was deliberately shown to investors not with the intention of acquiring investment but to get them to instill fear and panic in the market about Gox's insolvency.  Someone with insider knowledge about Gox's temporary insolvency (govt seizure) would benefit by buying a lot of cheap coins at $100 knowing that in the near future Gox would come back and rebrand itself as a new exchange and solvency suddenly restored. Shrem has mentioned in a podcast that Gonzague has been running Mtgox for several months now as the de facto CEO.

Feb 22-23, 2014 “SecondMarket was, in fact, approached by Mt. Gox some time last weekend. Mark Karpeles approached Barry Silbert to solicit an acquisition offer”
“However, when the magnitude of the theft and potential fraud became free, Silbert and his team quickly pulled out of discussions,” 
(I question the sincerity of the intent of Karpeles approaching Silbert for a bailout, no sane person would bail out Mtgox.  Surely Karpeles must know the reaction of a VC that is already well known in the bitcoin community would be to panic and distance themselves from Mtgox right?  Maybe this was a way to leak that Mtgox was insolvent thus inducing panic and fear on their own exchange?  Or maybe Karpeles was actually delusional enough to believe what was written in the Crisis pdf)
http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/77920927310/i-retract-nothing-i-have-written-so-far-regarding-mt
 
Feb 24, 2014  Crisis Strategy pdf is leaked to public via twobitidiot's blog.  All major bitcoin exchanges issue coordinated joint statement condemning Mtgox insolvency.  Mtgox has massive panic selling throughout the whole day and abruptly shuts down.  Karpeles becomes public enemy #1.  (Twobitidiot is invested in a FDIC style insurance for bitcoin.  The exact type of service that would be in demand after a bitcoin exchange disaster)

Feb 25, 2014 Jon Wickedfire, an alleged news journalist for Fox news, interviews Karpeles on IRC.  Gives vague links referring to a 9gag.com site.  Karpeles drops hints alluding that coins are not “lost” but “temporarily unavailable”.
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/179038-my-conversation-mark-karpeles-mtgox-2.html#post2164682

Feb 26, 2014 ne0futur, an IRC Mtgox support mod, says Karpeles can not speak about certain things by the US government
http://pastie.org/private/qjdf6xtxohxa8qxsnjtmq
 
Feb 28, 2014 Mtgox files for bankruptcy protection.  This is covered in the global media.

March 2, 2014  the Jan 30th conversation between Karpeles and the Japanese banker is released by anonymous user 'nanashi' in the IRC chat room.  Karpeles acknowledges Bitinstant users are being investigated and that he's investigating money laundering cooperatively with us gov.  Date of Jan 30, fits the timeline of banking issues after Shrem got arrested.  Who and why would they leak this audio file?  Karpeles?  Is it standard business practice to record a conversation with a banker in Japan?
http://pastebin.com/2xF9VCXj (IRC chat log)
 
 
user 'nanashi' says he is a messenger  and that hackers are trying to find out the truth.  That a random lease document pdf, employee info, mtgox's trading engine source code and that audio conversation are released.  My speculation is that the audio may have been leaked by someone who's trying to protect karpeles reputation.  Maybe someone wants to make it public that Karpeles is working with the DOJ and did not steal customer coins.  Maybe Karpeles leaked this information himself.
 
however he says: [02/03/2014 21:35] <nanashi____> want gox boss going a jail for crime against user
 
 
 
At this point, there seems to be a lot of activity happening behind the scenes that is not being explained in the official statements or actions of Mtgox.  mtgox.com shows they are under bankruptcy protection.  That leaves them the option for civil rehabilitation meaning that they may have ability to reopen business in order to pay customers back.  That was explicitly written by Mtgox's attorneys. 
 
"In order to increase repayments to our creditors, it is necessary to explore the possibility of having MtGox Co., Ltd. continue its business. This is why the civil rehabilitation procedure has been chosen, Rebuilding MtGox Co., Ltd under the supervision of the court in a legally organized procedure while giving proper explanations will not be for the sole benefit of the company but for that of the whole bitcoin community.
 
All efforts will now be made to restore the business and recover damages to repay debts to creditors. We hope for the understanding and cooperation of all."
https://www.mtgox.com/
 
 Mtgox can not possibly pay back their creditors if they only had 2000btc left like the Crisis Strategy pdf stated (unless they ignore the 740k btc missing as a liability).  I infer this to mean that in the near future Mtgox or a rebranded company will soon have a large enough bitcoin injection (possibly from the cold storage wallets seized by the Feds) to run a profitable exchange.  Although this is just an option and does not mean they are yet approved for this.


** speculation: notice the timeline implies that in April 2013, business was running smooth with no withdrawal delays in either fiat or btc.  After May 2013, verification becomes a requirement.  Payouts in fiat become harder.  5 months pass before DPR is arrested in October 2013.  Within 2 months, SR2 employees are arrested in dec 2013.  Jan 26, 2014, shrem/faiella are arrested.  Afterwards Mtgox insanity ensues.

** I also left out the Coinlab lawsuit for breach of contract in May 2013.  That doesn’t have too much significance regarding the 9gag theory.  (govt seizure)

Thanks for the comprehensive timeline.

As for the below quote


I think that is pretty standard in voluntary bankruptcy proceedings. No matter how many Bitcoin is left to pay to creditors, if MtGox is open for business they can use any proceeds to increase repayments. If they stay closed, then whatever is left is whatever can be used for repayments.

I wouldn't read too much into it. Certainly not that it means the 740.000 BTC will be made available once they re-open.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/09/mt-gox-hack-allegedly-reveals-bitcoin-balances-customer-account-totals/