chepicap.com
The trial of the former CEO of Mt. Gox is drawing to a close in Tokyo. Mark Karpeles is facing charges of fraud and embezzlement, and he has restated his innocence on both counts.
Karpeles was in charge of Mt. Gox, once the largest Bitcoin exchange by trading volume, when it went under back in 2014. The platform collapsed after it was revealed that it had lost over 800,000 BTC, worth around $480 million at the time.
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The former CEO is not being held liable for this hack, but is accused of transferring 340 million yen from customers' accounts to his personal account, between September and December 2013. The fraud charges are due to his allegedly manipulating data on the exchange to inflate trading volumes, abusing the trust of its users and profiting further from their investments.
The trial began in June 2017, and Karpeles has protested his innocence to all charges. His defense team claim that his actions were just part of Mt. Gox's usual business activities. The prosecution is seeking a 10-year prison sentence, which is double the term that it had initially wanted to see. A verdict is expected to be reached on March 15, 2019.