Mt Gox bitcoin CEO Mark Karpeles Arrested

sennin436

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Well, looks likes karma time for Karpeles. Wonder if he'll finally reveal the true whereabouts of the missing bitcoins for a plea deal... ;) Apparently this initial charge of 'falsifying financial records' is just the beginning. More serious criminal charges such as fraud, embezzlement, etc, is most likely to follow in several weeks.

Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange CEO Mark Karpeles arrested in Japan

Karpeles is accused of tampering with financial records to inflate his bank account by $1 million -- and a former employee has ended his silence over the Mt. Gox debacle.

Former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles has been arrested in Tokyo on suspicion of financial fraud.

As reported by the Associated Press, the Tokyo Metro Police have arrested the 30-year-old on suspicion of falsifying financial records in the Mt. Gox computer system in order to inflate his own bank account by $1 million.

Karpeles allegedly fiddled with the once-dominant bitcoin exchange's systems in 2013, and if found guilty, could face up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 500,000 yen ($4,000).....

.....Barr and other former employees conducted their own investigation and through estimates and guess-work, ascertained the model and financials of Mt. Gox didn't quite add up. Barr commented:

"The expenditures far exceeded every model we had for income. I confronted Mark about it, told him I couldn't take the role if he couldn't explain this gross incompetence in spending (he was also asking employees other than myself to find investors ... something impossible without knowing the financial status of the company).

Around the same time, we learned that Mark only had one bank account, shared with Mt.Gox's customer deposits. That was the nail in the coffin."
 


About damn time. It always amazed me how many supporters and true believers he had after everything was exposed and still, no one went after him.

Even with the brief and limited exposure I had to his operation, one could clearly see there was something not kosher going on after a bit of digging into the books. I had pressed for more time and access and while his inner circle wanted me to take a gander and help disprove him from any wrong doing, for 'some strange reason' (please note serious sarcasm from captain fuckin obvious here) he just wouldn't allow it and kept referencing the AML guidelines, which actually didn't even apply to what I was trying to gain access to. I think he saw the AML guideline as something fancy and financial related that confused some people, and every time he dropped that excuse people more or less just fucked off.. but since I had experience in the industry of merch banking and intl finance, I knew it didn't apply, and he had no other excuse except for that thin line. But it worked, because he had final say and was the only one with absolute access.

That was certainly an interesting few months to say the least. The Bitcoin community is really fascinating as fuck. I had never encountered so many people losing so much money and wealth so quickly before! But I did meet a lot of VERY well connected people, many whom I consider good personal friends today. So, thanks Mark! Don't drop the soap... Though, knowing you, I should say -- Don't hide the soap and claim you magically lost it somewhere.. oops!

On a more positive note... Bitcoin is still very much an untapped frontier, but goddamnit whomever came up with the line about Bitcoin scaring the bankers needs to be slapped, because Bitcoin doesn't frighten anyone nor will it ever replace the USD. So please, cut that shit out already.
 
On a more positive note... Bitcoin is still very much an untapped frontier, but goddamnit whomever came up with the line about Bitcoin scaring the bankers needs to be slapped, because Bitcoin doesn't frighten anyone nor will it ever replace the USD. So please, cut that shit out already.
True... Bitcoin slappies swear it's the currency of the New World Order. But it's interesting.