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Japanese Police Arrest Mount Gox CEO Mark Karpeles

Posted by timothy on from the well-he-looks-guilty dept.

McGruber writes with the news as carried (paywalled) by the Wall Street Journal that Mark Karpeles, who headed bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, has been arrested by Japanese police: In February 2014, Mount Gox filed for bankruptcy, saying it had lost 750,000 of its customers' bitcoins as well as 100,000 of its own, worth some $500 million at the time. A police spokesman said Mr. Karpelès is suspected of manipulating his own account at the company by making it appear that $1 million was added to it. The BBC reports the arrest as well, and notes that the coins missing from Mt. Gox represent 7% of all Bitcoins in circulation.

5 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Found? by invictusvoyd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The firm said it found the bitcoins - worth around $116m (£70m) - in an old digital wallet from 2011.

    They just "found" it in an old wallet? Who would leave $116m to be just found? . The whole story seems to be fishy right from the start.

  2. Note to self by fustakrakich · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't trust private currencies from hucksters such as these guys. Their business is based on pure FUD. Play it safe with the government of your choice, one that has its millions of citizens ready and willing to back it up.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:Note to self by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The bitcoin attitude has amused me. Sure, I get that some people don't believe in, don't trust, or don't like their government and as such want to avoid using fiat currency issued by their government, but since the use of third-party intermediaries seems to have become the de-facto standard for using Bitcoin, one has all of the downsides of a fiat currency (ie, no natural value of its own) without any of the normal advantages associated with a government interested in the security of a currency or the ability of a government to correct issues associated with that currency. It's also possible to lose or destroy wealth simply through the loss of information due to the specific nature of Bitcoin, so wealth lost cannot be regained.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:Note to self by murdocj · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's so weird... I go to the bank, I get cash, I buy stuff. I use my credit card, I buy stuff. I send checks to pay bills. All with this worthless fiat currency that you rant about. Remind me, what's wrong here? The fact that what it can buy tomorrow may be different from what it can buy today? If you can point me to ANYTHING whose worth hasn't changed over time, I'd love to see it.

  3. Re:So what's up with those bitcoins? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    BitCoin is NOT anonymous. All it takes is a little detective work.