Mt.Gox founder Mark Karpeles Sentenced to Over Two Years. Is This a Joke?

[coolcoinz]

It's an example of a white collar crime and those usually get punished very lightly. There are of course cases that were intentionally hyped and ended with extremely harsh sentences to scare off followers, like Madoff, but the majority ends with <5 year sentences. It's worth it to cheat people and run fraudulent businesses if you're ready to sacrifice a few years of your life for a few million USD. The prison diet serves Karpeles well, he looks much better than 2 years ago.

[vit05]

He was not the founder. And as a company, My gox was fucked since the inception. It ha many flaws and horrible security. Justice isn't good at punishment for incompetent people and company. But the market is.

[squatter]

Just a thought, the bitcoins were stolen by someone who had admin privileges.

Jed McCaleb, who sold mt Gox to Karpeles 6 months before it collapsed, may still have had access to the admin username and password.

McCaleb sold it to Karpeles in early 2011. That's 3 years before it collapsed. Karpeles would have been crazy not to migrate to new wallets when he transferred ownership. IIRC according to the WizSec report, the Mt Gox private keys were compromised in September 2011.

I'm not ruling out the possibility that McCaleb could have been involved in some way, just pointing out those facts...

[1Referee]

I'm not trying to deflect the accusation or the imply a different culprit, just trying to figure this whole thing out. Maybe we will never know the truth.

The only truth that matters is that centralized exchanges can't be trusted, and shouldn't be trusted.

It's not worth the risk anymore. We're at a stage where buying back Bitcoin isn't a matter of spending a few thousand anymore, but hundreds of thousands, or millions in case it concerns very large traders/investors. It's one of the main reasons OTC volumes continue to increase. Dex's have seen an uptick in volume too.

[tippytoes]

Just a thought, the bitcoins were stolen by someone who had admin privileges.

Jed McCaleb, who sold mt Gox to Karpeles 6 months before it collapsed, may still have had access to the admin username and password.

McCaleb sold it to Karpeles in early 2011. That's 3 years before it collapsed. Karpeles would have been crazy not to migrate to new wallets when he transferred ownership. IIRC according to the WizSec report, the Mt Gox private keys were compromised in September 2011.

I'm not ruling out the possibility that McCaleb could have been involved in some way, just pointing out those facts...

Bottomline of this story, the justice system is really not fair at all because of the technicalities that they always need to look at. Ordinary crypto users are the ones who are suffering in this kind of broken system. Better take care of your investments and do your own due diligence so it will not happen to you.

[BurgerCash]

It's an example of a white collar crime and those usually get punished very lightly. There are of course cases that were intentionally hyped and ended with extremely harsh sentences to scare off followers, like Madoff, but the majority ends with <5 year sentences. It's worth it to cheat people and run fraudulent businesses if you're ready to sacrifice a few years of your life for a few million USD. The prison diet serves Karpeles well, he looks much better than 2 years ago.

Japanese judges have a 99% success rate in sentencing criminals, Karpeles is simply not a crook. He's negligient, naive (as he bought an exchange that was already insolvent) but he is being demonized for a crime he did not commit - Jed Mccaleb did.

[izanagi narukami]

It's the power of investor where who own more crypto asset, they can do anything.
That's can become the advantage or disadvantage on crypto but for me, as long as it's not affect to much, I can bear it.
Every people have their own tolerance actually

[figmentofmyass]

The 650 000 BTC are small in comparison to the damage that he done to the progress and adoption of Bitcoin.

This is true, not only he make a huge financial loss for thousands of investors, but this event has had a significant impact on public perception about what is actually bitcoin.

aren't these events inevitable though? when fidelity and bakkt are custodians for all of wall street's bitcoins, is it going to be better? what happens when they lose all the coins in their custody?

i see these custodial losses as part of a cultural learning process. most people---even most bitcoin users---don't appreciate the importance of securing their own coins.

when i got into bitcoin i was a trader first and foremost and i kept everything on exchanges. i paid dearly for it more than once and i don't make those mistakes anymore. i truly feel that people using exchanges as wallets are at fault and need to start taking responsibility for their own money. i don't believe in playing the victim. that's why i think blaming mark karpeles for the downfall of bitcoin is a cop out. bitcoin users being lazy and trusting and sending all their coins for someone else to hold is straight up bad behavior. we shouldn't keep justifying that shit. not your keys, not your coins.

[eagle10]

I really could feel the heaviness in your heart because you have been affected as a client by Mt Gox founder's unfair trial and verdict knowing the graveness of stealing hard earned money from the people in the form of cryptocurrency. You cannot help but post here your disgust how you feel over the verdict. Those comments who are a little bit bias do not feel how it is robbed with their hard earned money.

[TheCoinGrabber]

If you go mug someone for $500, you go to jail. If you steal $500M, you don't get prison time. Such is the way of the world. Glad I didn't lose money over this (this was before my introduction to cryptos).

I'm not trying to deflect the accusation or the imply a different culprit, just trying to figure this whole thing out. Maybe we will never know the truth.

The only truth that matters is that centralized exchanges can't be trusted, and shouldn't be trusted.

True. Never keep a substantial amount in them. Onlyvuse them for trading or cashing out for fiat.

[Gyrsur]

yes, it is a joke! someone don't want that he is taking the responsibility for his acting in the past.

[eaLiTy]

The courts found Karpeles guilty of “illegally producing electronic records” in connection to Mt. Gox’s books and were given a  sentence of two years and six months .
He was not found guilty of embezzlement and aggravated breach of trust.
According to the Wall Street Journal,  if Karpeles remains on “good behavior” over the next four years he won’t serve prison time .

He just gambled with user funds and did nothing to safe guard the funds even with multiple warnings and by the end of the day the users lost all of their coins and their benefits for simply trusting them and depositing the amount, everyone started trading in Mt and i am sure everyone who deposited their funds during those period lost their coins and the long wait of when the funds will be returned continued till this day and he got scot-free free with a slight warning.

I still believe that Karpeles has robbed Mr.Gox  because he was unable to cover his crazy investments, like a bitcoin cafe.  Why he faked trading info and took millions from his clients?

That is the truth, there were many shady things in the entire process, getting hacked from their hot wallet in a period of time and in the end the trustee overlooking the sale of tokens started selling in open market and that impacted the market in 2017.
 

[wwzsocki]

That is the truth, there were many shady things in the entire process...

From what I see the majority of You are against the court verdict and don't believe that Karpeles was not involved or innocent of the hack and lost of clients funds.

I just can't stand that Karpeles will be the head of a department in a big company making further his carrier and enjoy the life when hundreds of victims are left broke.

In April 2018 he become chief technology officer for the world's largest virtual private network (VPN) service, London Trust Media.

Karpeles should pay back all he has stolen especially if he can afford that. And he can from what we see above.

[Jating]

Any of you guys think that the verdict will be different if Mark Karpeles is tried in the USA for the same case? (embezzlement and illegal manipulation of accounting.) Just for the sake of argument, I think Mark will be given harsher punishment.

[figmentofmyass]

Lawyers finally decided they have enough bitcoins for themselves before the next bull run starts.

They sure know how to drag things out. Dirty pricks.

the only thing that got wrapped up here is the criminal proceedings against karpeles. the bankruptcy/civil rehab stuff is still dragging out and probably will for some time. they're still pocketing court fees and expenses from the BTC sold by the trustee.

i guess it's an unprecedented situation to have a bankrupt company that---in fiat terms---has assets far above and beyond its liabilities. it's amazing to me that 5 years later, creditors still haven't received a dime back.

[shamc]

If it happened in a country that doesn't suck up to the rich people then he would be put into jail asap, and then put into another place even worse. He has paid off someone for sure

[betty11]

The rich actually control the world economy. They all have a meeting point where they settle issues regarding fraud and how they might get their share off it. They are cabal that must be stopped. They careless about the common man on the street. This is so in many countries. My own country is classified as a failed state, even if my government does deny this.

[wwzsocki]

Any of you guys think that the verdict will be different if Mark Karpeles is tried in the USA for the same case? (embezzlement and illegal manipulation of accounting.) Just for the sake of argument, I think Mark will be given harsher punishment.

I am 100% sure that if this trial will be in the USA then Karpeles would have to spend for sure some additional time in jail and pay back the money he has stolen at least this 3 million which were confirmed that he took from his clients.

Additionally, he should be restricted from opening a new exchange or to apply for any kind of trading license or any other regulations related to trading.

[bakasabo]

Even though the sentence is only 2 years, this time can be total nightmare for him 

[TheBeardedBaby]

Interesting, Ross Ulbricht was sentenced for lifetime (twice + 40 years extra) for the SilkRoad but Karpeles goes to jail for two years. He can even skip jailtime for a good attitude.. wtf.
double standards ?