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Mark Karpeles, former CEO of the very old Bitcoin Stock Exchange, Mt. Gox, has escaped some charges, but has been found guilty of manipulating data exchanged in a Japanese court.
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal on Friday, the Tokyo District Court found Karpeles guilty of unreasonably creating electronic records related to Mt. Gox's books, but innocent on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust.
Karpeles was sentenced to a suspended sentence of two years and six months. It must maintain a good track record over the next four years to avoid jail time.
The verdict of the court comes almost five years after the mountain. Gox class for liquidation in April 2014 after claiming to have been hacked for 850,000 bitcoins, some of which were found later.
According to the WSJ report, Karpeles lawyers wrote in their final plea in court:
"Mt. Gox did not collapse because of the accused [Karpeles’] mischief. On the contrary, the defendant was doing his best every day to prevent his collapse. "
In December, Japanese prosecutors sought Karpeles was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for embezzlement, alleging that he had used approximately $ 3 million of client funds for his personal use.
Karpeles, on the other hand, reiterated his innocence and excused many times over the years. He once m said"I never imagined that things would end like this and I'm always sorry for everything that happened and the effect it had on everyone involved."
Last August, the Japanese Bankruptcy Court, which initially oversaw the case, lined up with the creditors who filed a motion to transfer the case to civil rehabilitation. As such, the creditors could ask to receive their blocked bitcoin at Mt.Gox in its original form instead of converting them into fiduciary currency.
In January, Mt.Gox's trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, announced that the deadline for creditor proof of their claims was being extended to March 15, when the trustee will submit the reorganization plan to the court.
Mark Karpeles image via CoinDesk archives
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