The head of MT Gox bankrupt bitcoin exchange appears inTokyo court

According to CoinDesk, Mark Karpeles faces up to 5 years in prison or a fine of 500,000 yen (the equivalent of $4,000)  as he was the Chief Executive of MtGox cryptocurrency exchange closed in 2014.Law-enforcement authorities suspect that in February 2013 he transfered $1,000,000 to his own account using the access to the MtGox computer network.

Karpeles was arrested in August 2015 but released on bail a few months later. The suspect denies the charge. In October 2016 Mark Karpeles made new posts  in Twitter and even sometimes answered questions concerning the exchange bankruptcy.

At the moment of Karpeles’s arrest Japanese authorities were slightly confused– cryptocurrencies were not regulated by the government at that time and no legal framework existed for them. However, over the last years a few laws on cryptocurrencies have been passed and one of them specifies that own assets of cryptocurrency exchange have to be split up. Reason for this was losses incurred by MtGox clients.

MtGox clients still hope to get back their funds.They discuss and try to clarify details of what’s happened in social networks. Cryptocurrency detractors emphasize once again risks related to virtual currencies however its followers believe that what happened to MtGox is justan exception to the rules.

According to Reuters, outcome of the trial is unknown yet.

The suspect still pleads not guilty stating that money transfers from client accounts took place as a result of inadequate security of the software.