Why does Karpelès not recover the coins from those who stole them? (Mt. Gox)

[falschgeld]

I just found a comment on a blog which hints that since the coins which were stolen from Gox were stolen through normal withdrawal transactions, it should be feasible to track the transactions to the bad guys who stole the money:

Anonymous
March 26, 2014 - 00:20

“There is another issue that just came up in my mind.

Gox should be able to find the transactions in the blockchain where the coins went lost. These TX went to Bitcoin addresses. So Gox knows the Bitcoin addresses of all of the scammers. Now, why did Gox send funds to these addresses? They sent the funds because some users told them to do withdrawal transactions. I’m pretty sure that Gox is still in posession of their database where any Bitcoin address that was ever used for withdrawal can be linked to a Gox account. So Gox knows which Gox accounts were used for this scam. Mt. Gox is in posession of identity information for most (albeit not all) Gox users. So Gox has the names, addresses, ID card copies, and proofs of residence of many of the scammers which were involved in this exchange robbery. They know who has stolen the money.

But why don’t they try to recover the money from the thieves? I mean, they could sue them / freeze their accounts / report them to the police / etc.

But they aren’t even trying to do it. They just sit there and accept the ‘reality’ that the money is gone.

Honi soit qui mal y pense.”

(Edit: Btw, the last sentence is an idiom which means something like “smart are those who think that something evil is going on here”)

[oppahdoggystyle]

Well, I think there are possibilities:
1) Because he was involved the theft
2) He was grossly negligent... criminally negligent...
3) People around him screwed him over big time and left him holding the bag (unlikely possibility)
4) He doesn't care. All he knows is he is rich and gox is his own piggy bank
5) He doesn't know where to begin....


To be honest, I don't think we'll ever know what is going through Karpeles' mind. We'll probably never really understand what went on inside gox because let's face it, bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies are something investigators/courts/etc never really encountered in their line of duty. But, you do raise an interesting question.

[ITsTanked]

Somebody smart enough to success steal probably not stupid enough to use real ID anyway. Can buy fake passport/util scans for about $20 maybe more. 

[falschgeld]

Somebody smart enough to success steal probably not stupid enough to use real ID anyway. Can buy fake passport/util scans for about $20 maybe more. 

But if there were actual fake IDs or ID theft involved in this case, wouldn't Karpelès make it public? Wouldn't he say "I know which Gox accounts were linked to the theft but those users used fake IDs"?

That question in the Subject line is a rethoric question. The answer is that Karpelès still has got the coins.