Question: Would depositors fare better if Mt. Gox dismissed its bk filing?

[Nagle]

I have been doing a little bit more reading on Japanese law in this respect, and it would appear two things are necessary to engineer an out-of-court settlement:

• Form a creditors committee, and get the Tokyo court to recognize it.
• Write a a plan of liquidation and obtain creditor consensus on it.

Once these actions have been taken, then it should be possible to liquidate Mt. Gox under Japan's special liquidation law — which is a sub-part of the Corporation Act — first published in July 2005 and went into effect on May 1, 2006.
At present, the depositors (aka "creditors") have zero representation before the court, and thus exert virtually no influence over its proceedings.

Are there any international lawyers out there up to this kind of challenge?

As far as I know, no creditor of Mt. Gox has ever hired a lawyer in Japan to become involved in the Mt. Gox bankruptcy. 

This is surprising, since a lot of people lost money in Mt. Gox and some of them must have substantial assets available for legal action.

[DrApricot]

I have been doing a little bit more reading on Japanese law in this respect, and it would appear two things are necessary to engineer an out-of-court settlement:

• Form a creditors committee, and get the Tokyo court to recognize it.
• Write a a plan of liquidation and obtain creditor consensus on it.

Once these actions have been taken, then it should be possible to liquidate Mt. Gox under Japan's special liquidation law — which is a sub-part of the Corporation Act — first published in July 2005 and went into effect on May 1, 2006.
At present, the depositors (aka "creditors") have zero representation before the court, and thus exert virtually no influence over its proceedings.

Are there any international lawyers out there up to this kind of challenge?

As far as I know, no creditor of Mt. Gox has ever hired a lawyer in Japan to become involved in the Mt. Gox bankruptcy.  

This is surprising, since a lot of people lost money in Mt. Gox and some of them must have substantial assets available for legal action.

Attorney Nobuaki Kobayashi, the court appointed bankruptcy trustee, is no doubt quite serious when he says that he is evaluating alternative takeover deals such as the ones from Sunlot and BitOcean Japan. If depositors want to see a different outcome besides a takeover, then they will need to work together and should possibly be willing to fund a legal team on their own.

Edit: Note, one advantage to forming a creditor's committee could be getting, with court approval, to depose Mark Karpeles and other Mt. Gox personnel regarding the whereabouts of any "missing" Mt. Gox bitcoins and cash. Creditors generally have the right to discover assets the debtor might be hiding.

[snappa4ever]

I have been doing a little bit more reading on Japanese law in this respect, and it would appear two things are necessary to engineer an out-of-court settlement:

• Form a creditors committee, and get the Tokyo court to recognize it.
• Write a a plan of liquidation and obtain creditor consensus on it.

Once these actions have been taken, then it should be possible to liquidate Mt. Gox under Japan's special liquidation law — which is a sub-part of the Corporation Act — first published in July 2005 and went into effect on May 1, 2006.
At present, the depositors (aka "creditors") have zero representation before the court, and thus exert virtually no influence over its proceedings.

Are there any international lawyers out there up to this kind of challenge?

As far as I know, no creditor of Mt. Gox has ever hired a lawyer in Japan to become involved in the Mt. Gox bankruptcy.  

This is surprising, since a lot of people lost money in Mt. Gox and some of them must have substantial assets available for legal action.

Attorney Nobuaki Kobayashi, the court appointed bankruptcy trustee, is no doubt quite serious when he says that he is evaluating alternative takeover deals such as the ones from Sunlot and BitOcean Japan. If depositors want to see a different outcome besides a takeover, then they will need to work together and should possibly be willing to fund a legal team on their own.

Edit: Note, one advantage to forming a creditor's committee could be getting, with court approval, to depose Mark Karpeles and other Mt. Gox personnel regarding the whereabouts of any "missing" Mt. Gox bitcoins and cash. Creditors generally have the right to discover assets the debtor might be hiding.

Deposing Karpeles would only produce potential results in the event that he actually had stolen customer funds himself. Even if he did do this all that could be done is to ask questions and there would be little that could be done if he chooses to lie.

I personally do not think he stole customer money (but rather did not know how to run a billion dollar company) and think that deposing him would only use up valuable resources.

[DrApricot]

I have been doing a little bit more reading on Japanese law in this respect, and it would appear two things are necessary to engineer an out-of-court settlement:

• Form a creditors committee, and get the Tokyo court to recognize it.
• Write a a plan of liquidation and obtain creditor consensus on it.

Once these actions have been taken, then it should be possible to liquidate Mt. Gox under Japan's special liquidation law — which is a sub-part of the Corporation Act — first published in July 2005 and went into effect on May 1, 2006.
At present, the depositors (aka "creditors") have zero representation before the court, and thus exert virtually no influence over its proceedings.

Note, one advantage to forming a creditor's committee could be getting, with court approval, to depose Mark Karpeles and other Mt. Gox personnel regarding the whereabouts of any "missing" Mt. Gox bitcoins and cash. Creditors generally have the right to discover assets the debtor might be hiding.

Deposing Karpeles would only produce potential results in the event that he actually had stolen customer funds himself. Even if he did do this all that could be done is to ask questions and there would be little that could be done if he chooses to lie.

I personally do not think he stole customer money (but rather did not know how to run a billion dollar company) and think that deposing him would only use up valuable resources.

Regardless of whether he stole the coins or not, Karpeles could answer several important questions about hidden assets:

• What happened to the $27 million in missing bank deposits?
• To which addresses did the rouge traders send the bitcoins?
• Who holds them now?

If he isn't involved, then answering these questions should serve to clarify. He would have to answer under oath, so presumably he is intelligent enough not to lie. However, other Mt. Gox executives who also may have relevant information should, if possible, be deposed.