Mt. Gox - probably the result of a “massive theft” according to court papers

[DrApricot]

The Japanese court put Mt. Gox into liquidation in April and appointed a trustee to investigate the disappearance of the bitcoins, which the company said in court papers was probably the result of a “massive theft.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-17/mt-gox-u-s-bankruptcy-approved-to-help-bitcoin-hunt.html
Were some party running a "massive" uncovered short position unable to repurchase the bitcoins previously sold short, that would constitute a massive theft.....or to quote Daniel Drew, "He who sells what isn't his'n, must buy it back or go to pris'n."

[ShakyhandsBTCer]

That article did not say anything about it probably being a massive theft. It said that an investigation would take place.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Mtgox coins were lost in the script somewhere but I think they recovered some of them.
Anyways Keeples is still in trouble

Mt. Gox in February sought court protection in Japan after losing 850,000 bitcoins, then valued at about $473 million. Customers lost about 750,000 and Mt. Gox lost about 100,000 of its own. The company later found 200,000 in an old-format digital wallet.

So there is still something to claim

[DrApricot]

That article did not say anything about it probably being a massive theft. It said that an investigation would take place.

Did you read it? Mt. Gox claimed probable theft in their court papers. I quoted the relevant paragraph in my post. One should hope there is some kind of investigation.

[ThomasCrowne]

theft all right.  karpeles literally screwed everybody.  if you really think hackers managed to get away with 650,000 without even the most incompetent boob noticing something i've got a really amazing bridge for sale!

[freedombit]

theft all right.  karpeles literally screwed everybody.  if you really think hackers managed to get away with 650,000 without even the most incompetent boob noticing something i've got a really amazing bridge for sale!

Not the bridge, but maybe the tunnel?

[Ron~Popeil]

theft all right.  karpeles literally screwed everybody.  if you really think hackers managed to get away with 650,000 without even the most incompetent boob noticing something i've got a really amazing bridge for sale!

Agreed. I believe there was a hack, but the hack was performed with inside information about their security protocols or lack thereof. No one is intentionally that incompetent with that much money.

[ShakyhandsBTCer]

theft all right.  karpeles literally screwed everybody.  if you really think hackers managed to get away with 650,000 without even the most incompetent boob noticing something i've got a really amazing bridge for sale!

Agreed. I believe there was a hack, but the hack was performed with inside information about their security protocols or lack thereof. No one is intentionally that incompetent with that much money.

It could be possible that someone simply tried to hack Gox, hoping to get away with 10 or 15 coins, and discovered that they could easily get away with many, many more.

[DrApricot]

theft all right.  karpeles literally screwed everybody.  if you really think hackers managed to get away with 650,000 without even the most incompetent boob noticing something i've got a really amazing bridge for sale!

Agreed. I believe there was a hack, but the hack was performed with inside information about their security protocols or lack thereof. No one is intentionally that incompetent with that much money.

It could be possible that someone simply tried to hack Gox, hoping to get away with 10 or 15 coins, and discovered that they could easily get away with many, many more.

You seem to have forgotten about the $27 million in bank deposits that are also missing.

When the SHTF for Mt. Gox towards the end of February, they were torpedoed from several different directions all at once. The way the implosion came together suggests the exchange's financial distress was “engineered.” Elements of the scheme could have included, but were surely not limited to:

• insider infiltrator(s) who could not only have planted the bots, Willy and Markus, but also hidden the company's cold storage bitcoins (200K BTC miraculously found later in the old-format wallet)
• banks who could have created a cash/credit squeeze and frozen up Mt. Gox's bank deposits (the $27 million)
• media manipulation such as the phony, leaked "Crisis Strategy Draft" that implied Mt. Gox's deteriorated condition resulted from management incompetence.
• hacking, including DDoS attacks and exploitation of the supposed "transaction malleability" bug in the bitcoin protocol.
• possible government  asset seizure and gagging.
• manipulation of the bankruptcy court.

A couple of questions to ask:

• If Mt. Gox still held 200,000 BTC (discovered in the old-format wallet after they declared bk), why couldn't the bankruptcy filing either have been called off or else ended early? This number of BTC probably would have been enough for Mt. Gox to continue operating at some level.
• Were this merely a simple case of "massive theft" by hacking, then why no arrests after four months or at least some progress update on how the investigation is going? Also, why can't the movement of large quantities of stolen coins by the hackers be clearly observed in the blockchain?

It's too early to say exactly who was in on this, and who was not.