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Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of now-defunct bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox, is facing a 10 year prison sentence request from Japanese prosecutors.
The court ruling was held today in the Tokyo District Court, according to Japanese media Nikkei. Embezzling charges were pushed forward as the prosecution considered that the exchange had accessed the accounts and funds of its users, without intention to repay them.
Karpeles declared himself innocent, arguing that the funds taken from customers, amounting to 340 million yen, were being used as a loan which was to be repayed. However, prosecutors point out that there were no documents formalizing the loan, and no intention to ever repay it.
Regarding the hack and disappearance of funds, Karpeles declared that he had no involvement or knowledge whatsoever about the incident. However, this particular trial does not seeks to find out what happened regarding the hack, so the specifics of the it will not be discussed in the sentence.
After claiming having been the victims of a hack amounting to almost one million Bitcoins, Mt. Gox filed for liquidation back in April 2014.
Read more: Mt. Gox trustee AKA 'Tokyo’s Bitcoin Whale' extends deadline to December 26; Claims rush in as Mt Gox settlement deadline approaches