[GOX] Crime Scene Investigation, Case #MG744

[ifritsultan]

Fun fact:

If you browse to 19vLTw3JM1zxcRbreyKkGuR8qejbj2dV59 on blockchain, you can read a gib fat warning on top of the page

Mt.Gox: Addresses are identifiers which you use to send bitcoins to another person.
Warning! this bitcoin address contains transactions which may be double spends. You should be extremely careful when trusting any transactions to or from this address.

[Aido]

Some interesting data:

http://mark-karpeles.com/m.php or mirror http://lookup.mtgoxleaks.org/m.php

Data from recent and old 2011 leaks merged together

[bananas]

Anyone can verify the bankruptcy protection laws in USA and Japan?

In many parts of the world the owner of the company can't have a criminal past to apply for brakrupt protection. It seems Mark has a charge for fraud in France.

That is very interesting on multiple fronts.  Could you elaborate further, perhaps indicate the charge, story, accusation, include dates, amounts, etc ...

thanks

http://gawker.com/does-mt-goxs-ceo-have-a-secret-history-of-online-payme-1534752110

[Armis]

Anyone can verify the bankruptcy protection laws in USA and Japan?

In many parts of the world the owner of the company can't have a criminal past to apply for brakrupt protection. It seems Mark has a charge for fraud in France.

That is very interesting on multiple fronts.  Could you elaborate further, perhaps indicate the charge, story, accusation, include dates, amounts, etc ...

thanks

http://gawker.com/does-mt-goxs-ceo-have-a-secret-history-of-online-payme-1534752110

Great, thanks, I will post the info from the link so that all could read it, also to have it before it disappears or changes.

"In the wake of Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox announcing that it lost $473 million worth of the virtual currency, many people who saw their money disappear have called for CEO Mark Karpeles to be imprisoned. Well, funny thing: it wouldn't necessarily be the first time Karpeles has been arrested for fraud.

As pointed out to Gawker by a tipster who wishes to remain anonymous, Karpeles seems to discuss a past arrest concerning "payment systems on the internet" in a 2006 post on his blog Magical Tux. The post, like all on the blog Karpeles links to in his Twitter bio, is in French, but the tipster translated the relevant section on his personal Tumblr:

Indeed, during my misspent youth, I made a huge, huge mistake. Enough silliness that I found myself locked into custody and brought temporarily placed in the "mousetrap" (souricière: possibly "n.f. (pol.): 'Baited trap' laid by the forces of law-and-order."). This was followed by an investigation of more than a year, which eventually ended in a trial.

I will not give too much detail about what I did wrong, just say it concerns payment systems on the Internet. I spent two years taking risks becoming larger, perhaps because it was an exciting side … whatever, I ended up getting arrested (in rather bizarre circumstances, noting that when I was arrested, I was just in a police station to file a complaint for something else). Anyway, I was released four days later and placed under "judicial review". Basically I did not have the right to leave France and I had to go regularly to the courthouse to speak to someone who was going to see if I lived in "the right way".

...

In the end, the trial was not concluded too bad for me (3 months suspended sentence disappearing after 5 years, and nothing in the criminal record).
A Google translate for the blog post returns the same story, albeit in less smooth English.

According to Karpeles' blog post, the fallout from this "huge, huge mistake" is why he eventually migrated to Japan, where he now lives. There is almost no evidence of Karpeles' possible past arrest on the internet, perhaps because, as the blog post claims, his sentence would have been wiped from records somewhere around two years ago.

But a recent story in the French paper Le Journal de Sâone et Loire, that includes quotes from Karpeles' mother Anne, says that after starting an IT company in Paris, Karpeles left the city after being caught committing "computer fraud." This small tidbit was noticed by Reddit's Bitcoin forum, but has not yet trickled up to the media until now.

If Karpeles does have a history of committing fraud, it doesn't necessarily mean that he did anything wrong legally or morally with Mt. Gox's Bitcoins. But it probably won't make the people out $473 million sleep any easier.

The Bitcoin community will surely learn a number of lessons from the Mt. Gox disaster, and here is a simple one: when investing in Bitcoin, make sure the guy you're trusting with your money doesn't have a secret past committing fraud. Even if that means finding someone who knows French."


Here is additional relevant and related back-story:
http://www.lejsl.com/saone-et-loire/2014/03/01/un-qi-superieur-a-la-moyenne  [the translation is pretty bad]

Before talking to him in the world Mark Karpeles grew up in Dijon. His mother tells the journey of this computer genius.

The man who is now the most hated Internet has boiled teenager. A chubby face "geek" who scares anyone. And yet, this young 28 year old man born in Chenôve is now the target of all fantasies on the internet. Friday, after disappearing for three days, Mark Karpeles admitted to losing the $ 480 million that were stored in virtual currency on its site, MtGox. More than one million users have lost small fortunes in history.

A higher IQ than the average

If apologized, Mark Karpeles still remains in the sights of Japanese and U.S. authorities. The disappearance of that could be fraudulent. Nothing to worry his mother, contacted Friday and an impressive calm on the phone. "I know that Mark will do what it takes. If it is hidden for three days, it's just to gain strength and confront what awaits "says the Dijon now based in Switzerland. "And if he was really worried he would have called me. "

If Anne Karpeles talks about his son as if nothing had happened "for two minutes" that have lasted 15, the scandal generated by Mark resounding. However, the course of Mark Karpeles is nothing that a highwayman able to disappear in a few days, as he did Monday. Born in Chenôve in 1985, Mark Karpeles lived his early years in Côte-d'Or, with his mother, a geologist. He attended school Chevreul, lives in the city center of Dijon and already passionate about IT. "I think we did our first program together, Dijon, when he was 10 years old. "

Because the boy is early. An IQ test diagnostic her intelligence above average. "But there was no effort at school," laughs his mother, not stressed by the ordeals by his son. "I made him do the cooking, sewing, sport, but he mostly hung with computers. "At the point of becoming a genius, even if Anne Karpeles not pronounce the word. "Admittedly, it is not bad in the kitchen either. By cons, it can barely sew on a button (laughs). "A computer genius who, baccalaureate - got to Paris, where his mother had moved - begins in an IT company in Paris. He left the capital a little faster, accused, according to our information, computer fraud. He moved to Japan, where he bought in 2011 MtGox. It is the platform number 1 of Bitcoin. Until February 7, when the first bug, the site managed 80% of global Bitcoin transactions. Suffice to say it was worth a fortune. Today, Mark Karpeles, is accused by the Internet community to be incompetent - at best - or a crook. Nothing to worry his mother who, unlike his son, a young dad, kept ties in Côte-d'Or. "The last time I went to visit him in Japan, its website had been attacked. He solved the problem overnight, "says Anne Karpeles. "I'm sure it will still succeed this time. "Before starting, a knowing smile, a lapidary:" And $ 480 million is what we see when playing with what states and financiers. "

For the background, see the little guy Chenôve now married to a Japanese attacked on all sides, Anne Karpeles expected. "The computer world is hard. And when we know how the Bitcoin angry central banks, governments, one can understand that my son disturbed. "At the point of today find themselves propelled to the front of the stage. Not bad for the former shy child the Rue Neuve-Bergère de Dijon."

[Loozik]

Some interesting data:

http://mark-karpeles.com/m.php or mirror http://lookup.mtgoxleaks.org/m.php

Data from recent and old 2011 leaks merged together

Click ''top 5000 traders''. On top there is BTC 581k. This probably is Miss Whale - this cannot be verified as trades for this person(s) were not listed.

[Armis]

Here is some good news for ya:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/us-bitcoin-karpeles-idUSBREA2A1VM20140311?feedType=RSS

The same should be done in Japan + Mark Karpeles arrested.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9246921/Mt._Gox_kept_exchange_open_despite_knowledge_of_large_scale_theft?taxonomyId=144&pageNumber=1



Mt. Gox kept exchange open despite knowledge of large-scale theft
Exchange continued to operate and collect transaction fees despite its troubles, U.S. bankruptcy filing suggests

By Jeremy Kirk
March 12, 2014 08:53 PM ET
6 CommentsinShare2
IDG News Service - Mt. Gox may have collected a large sum in trading fees in the weeks before its closure, even though it was already aware that a vast number of bitcoins had gone missing, its U.S. bankruptcy filing suggests.

A sworn declaration in the filing from Robert Marie Mark Karpeles, Mt. Gox 's CEO, reveals that the Bitcoin exchange knew in early February that its situation was far graver than it had disclosed at the time.

Mt. Gox halted bitcoin withdrawals from its exchange on Feb. 7. It told customers it was investigating possible fraud due to a security issue called transaction malleability, but did not specify at the time how many bitcoins were missing. Buying and selling on the exchange continued until Feb. 25, when its website went dark.

Mt. Gox's first disclosure of the scale of its problems came when it filed for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo District Court three days later, saying 750,000 of its customers' bitcoins were missing, along with 100,000 of its own.

It appears from the U.S. bankruptcy filing that Mt. Gox executives knew the gravity of the company's losses up to 19 days before its public disclosure, but gave traders no reason at the time to believe the exchange might not be solvent.

In the filing, Karpeles states that the withdrawals were halted Feb. 7 due to "the theft or disappearance of hundreds of thousands of bitcoins owned by Mt. Gox customers as well as Mt. Gox itself."

Why Mt. Gox continued to operate the exchange with that knowledge is unclear.

Karpeles did not respond to a request for comment for this article sent to his personal email address.

The impact of Mt. Gox allowing customers to buy and sell bitcoins it suspected it did not have may be revealed by class-action lawsuits, one of which was filed in Chicago on Feb. 27, and another of which is planned in the U.K.

"They took trading fees on assets which didn't exist and accepted deposits when they knew they were insolvent," Aaron G., a Bitcoin investor who did not want his last name used, said via email.A

"The origin of the losses may or may not be incompetence," added Aaron, who has filed a fraud complaint against Mt. Gox with Tokyo police. "But they knew for at least two weeks and kept operating as normal."

After Feb. 7, Mt. Gox was still processing thousands of trades a day, according to Bitcoincharts.com, which records trading volumes for many Bitcoin markets.

 

An average of 49,912 bitcoins were traded daily on Mt. Gox between Feb. 7 and Feb. 25, at an average weighted price of $380.54 per bitcoin.

[darkmule]

Here is some good news for ya:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/us-bitcoin-karpeles-idUSBREA2A1VM20140311?feedType=RSS

The same should be done in Japan + Mark Karpeles arrested.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9246921/Mt._Gox_kept_exchange_open_despite_knowledge_of_large_scale_theft?taxonomyId=144&pageNumber=1



Mt. Gox kept exchange open despite knowledge of large-scale theft
Exchange continued to operate and collect transaction fees despite its troubles, U.S. bankruptcy filing suggests

Note:  the legal implication of this is reflected in a theory called "deepening insolvency."  This is that the knowing continued operation of an insolvent business operation itself creates a cause of action and this cause of action can be against the PRINCIPALS.  Basically, in this case, that would be anyone in sight with money in their pockets. 

This is the kind of cause of action that can pierce the corporate veil, or even directly go after directors and CEOs, possibly without even doing that first. 

Corporate lawyers will find this kind of cause of action very cutting edge and juicy.  Unfortunately, I'd also imagine they'd consume a lot of billable hours pursuing this very nifty, fun, edgy cause of action.

I now regret that I hate corporate law.

[sgbett]

Wouldn't it be sensible that someone who speaks Japanese contacts Japanese prosecutors to press criminal charges against Mark Karpeles (at least for lying to the court)? The more we wait the more evidence gets destroyed  

That depends if you are more interested in getting your bitcoins or having a pound of flesh.

[Loozik]

Wouldn't it be sensible that someone who speaks Japanese contacts Japanese prosecutors to press criminal charges against Mark Karpeles (at least for lying to the court)? The more we wait the more evidence gets destroyed  

That depends if you are more interested in getting your bitcoins or having a pound of flesh.

You know something that the public doesn't know?

[Armis]

Wouldn't it be sensible that someone who speaks Japanese contacts Japanese prosecutors to press criminal charges against Mark Karpeles (at least for lying to the court)? The more we wait the more evidence gets destroyed  

That depends if you are more interested in getting your bitcoins or having a pound of flesh.

At this point, I don't see it as a multiple choice question.

[mymenace]

Wouldn't it be sensible that someone who speaks Japanese contacts Japanese prosecutors to press criminal charges against Mark Karpeles (at least for lying to the court)? The more we wait the more evidence gets destroyed  

That depends if you are more interested in getting your bitcoins or having a pound of flesh.

At this point, I don't see it as a multiple choice question.

already being done http://blog.mtgoxrecovery.com/

[janos666]

I have been trying to read every possible forum posts and online articles about Gox since the BTC withdrawal blocking and I think I ended up with two conclusions:
1: I don't think we will solve this puzzle alone. Nobody knows or tells us enough and many people manage to actually work against each other.
2: At this rate, it's possible for me to reach a point where the time I spend reading about Gox could earn me the BTC (semi-directly in crypto or in fiat integrated at real-time price) I had on Gox if I spent that time working on something actually useful (for example, managing my altcoins and my mining hardwares with more care in this post-callopse-ish situation and/or managing my CE service business).

[ifritsultan]

How is this a matter of time instead of a matter of interest?

[freedombit]

I have been trying to read every possible forum posts and online articles about Gox since the BTC withdrawal blocking and I think I ended up with two conclusions:
1: I don't think we will solve this puzzle alone. Nobody knows or tells us enough and many people manage to actually work against each other.
2: At this rate, it's possible for me to reach a point where the time I spend reading about Gox could earn me the BTC (semi-directly in crypto or in fiat integrated at real-time price) I had on Gox if I spent that time working on something actually useful (for example, managing my altcoins and my mining hardwares with more care in this post-callopse-ish situation and/or managing my CE service business).

BUMP - reminder to follow the coins!

As a group, we are not alone. April 1 will be interesting. I am still hopeful for Bitcoin that this gets sorted out by the community and some concrete answers are provided. Anything less than 100% payout and complete disclosure of how and why this happened will leave Bitcoin tainted forever.

Follow the coins. People (not only this community, but worldwide) are starved for truth. If the truth can be shared, regardless of the pain, Bitcoin will flourish.

And if the truth includes 'transaction malleability' or 'hack' that would only be part of the truth. Thieves that take advantage of a security weakness should be exposed as well. If "everybody" was doing it, as I recently heard, then the whole damn thing is rotten. You don't build trust that way.

[Zeta0S]

Were is CEO Mark Karpeles now?

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/leoking/files/2014/02/Mark-Karpeles.jpg

[Armis]

zetaOS

your image/link/attachment was disallowed

kindly amended your post to include the text info

[Zeta0S]

zetaOS

your image/link/attachment was disallowed

kindly amended your post to include the text info

done

[larin]

Check this, please
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=524429

These guys connected with Mt. Gox!
For the sake of all the robbed in cryptocommunity, highlight this, participate!

[Zeta0S]

Hi I am Mark Karpeles and will open the Bitcoin Cafe in Japan Tokio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpN1UU8LErw&feature=youtu.be
 

[Massimo80]

Has something like this already been suggested/attempted?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=559309.0