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Ex-boss of MtGox bitcoin exchange arrested in Japan over lost $390m
Source: The Guardian
Ex-boss of MtGox bitcoin exchange arrested in Japan over lost $390m
Jessica Elgot and agencies
Saturday 1 August 2015 10.12 BST
Mark Karpeles, the former head of defunct bitcoin exchange MtGox, has been arrested in Japan, and is reportedly to be questioned over the 2014 disappearance of nearly $390m (£250m) worth of the virtual currency.
A spokesman for the Tokyo police said French-born Karpeles, 30, was suspected of accessing the exchange’s computer system in February 2013 and inflating his cash account by $1m.
But local media reported that police are also investigating his possible involvement in the vanishing of hundreds of millions of dollars of the virtual currency when the exchange collapsed in 2014. It was not immediately clear if Karpeles was set to be charged with any offences.
After the Japanese news website nikkei.com reported that he was going to be arrested, Karpeles told the Wall Street Journal that the allegations were false and he would “of course deny” them. Kyodo News service quoted Karpeles’s lawyer as saying his client denied any wrongdoing.
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Jessica Elgot and agencies
Saturday 1 August 2015 10.12 BST
Mark Karpeles, the former head of defunct bitcoin exchange MtGox, has been arrested in Japan, and is reportedly to be questioned over the 2014 disappearance of nearly $390m (£250m) worth of the virtual currency.
A spokesman for the Tokyo police said French-born Karpeles, 30, was suspected of accessing the exchange’s computer system in February 2013 and inflating his cash account by $1m.
But local media reported that police are also investigating his possible involvement in the vanishing of hundreds of millions of dollars of the virtual currency when the exchange collapsed in 2014. It was not immediately clear if Karpeles was set to be charged with any offences.
After the Japanese news website nikkei.com reported that he was going to be arrested, Karpeles told the Wall Street Journal that the allegations were false and he would “of course deny” them. Kyodo News service quoted Karpeles’s lawyer as saying his client denied any wrongdoing.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/01/ex-boss-of-mtgox-bitcoin-exchange-arrested-in-japan-over-lost-480m
