Tokyo court acquits Mt Gox CEO of major charges

Mt. Gox was the largest bitcoin exchange from 2013-2014, handling almost three-quarters of the total global bitcoin transactions. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and owner of this now-morbid company, Mark Karpeles, who had been accused of fabricating electronic data and fraud has been discharged of allegations of legal misconduct. He was acquitted by the District Court, Tokyo on the 15^th of March.

The cryptocurrency businessman was declared guilty of tampering records and was granted a two and a half year suspended sentence, which essentially meant that he would not be required to serve this sentence unless he commits another crime in the next 4 year period. In addition to this, the court demanded that he pay the costs of the trial.

Technology reporters, presented a summary of the verdict by the Tokyo District Court on the Karpeles case, stating that the court considered the CEOs methods of running Mt. Gox a complete mess and they believed he manipulated the records in an attempt to conceal the fact that a lot of Bitcoins were missing in them. However, the verdict was that he had not tampered with the records for personal gain.

In accordance with translations of the court’s decision, it was stated that tampering information and records involving huge sums of money had led to critical damage on part of the Mt. Gox users. There was, however, no sturdy proof of the severe accusations made against Karpeles. Nakamura further went on to say that the criminal responsibility of the defendant cannot be neglected.

The Tokyo prosecutors convicted Karpeles on many accounts of misconduct and scamming, including severe breach of trust and embezzlement, expecting him to be sentenced for ten years in prison. Being a staunch advocate of his innocence during the whole trial, Karpeles stated that he was pleased to be finally be acquitted of all charges against him.