“All in all, I felt Mt. Gox was an RPG to Mark, as he didn’t quite grasp the reality that the money being in deposited into his bank account meant more to other people than just numbers on his screen”.
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The fresh allegation against France-born Karpeles, 30, follows his arrest Saturday by Tokyo police, more than a year after the once-dominant exchange collapsed in the wake of fraud allegations. The news reports also suggested that he had transferred the funds to other firms owned by him. As stated by him, he was manipulating some data in order to test-trade the currency with a customer, but police suspect that he has transferred these funds to his own personal accounts.
Karpeles appeared on Japanese TV clad in a T-shirt, with a baseball cap pulled low over his face, as he was being led to a police vehicle from his home in Tokyo.
Reported by the Japanese criminal law, the police can keep a suspect arrested without any proven charge for as long as three weeks while they carry out interrogations trying to extract a confession.
Yoshihide Suga, top government spokesman, has commented on the investigation conducted and conformity with requirements of G7 countries: “With respect to virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, we have gathered information and discussed measures”.
“At the G-7 summit, it was requested that each country introduce regulations from the viewpoint of measures to stop terrorism financing and money-laundering”.
Mt Gox, once the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy later that month.
There are still 650,000 Bitcoins unaccounted for following MtGox’s bankruptcy, after the firm claimed that it had discovered 200,000 in an old digital wallet. Karpeles said that 850,000 Bitcoins worth about $477 million at the time were missing and likely stolen by hackers, reports Tech Crunch.
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Bitcoin’s reputation was also damaged when U.S. authorities seized funds as part of an investigation into the online black market Silk Road. Investors have demanded the courts to make Mt. Gox publicize their documents so that cybersecurity experts can help analyze what happened.
