MtGox chief found guilty of inflating cash balance

Mar 16, 2019 | News On Japan

Mar 16, 2019 (NHK) - The Tokyo District Court has sentenced the former head of a digital currency exchange to 30 months in prison suspended for four years for altering data in a Bitcoin account.

The French-born defendant, Mark Karpeles, was CEO of MtGox, which failed five years ago. The charges against him included altering data in the firm's computer system to pad his account balance and embezzling about 3 million dollars from clients' accounts in 2013.

Karpeles pleaded not guilty to all charges, saying he has never misappropriated clients' money.

In his ruling on Friday, presiding judge Tomoyuki Nakayama said the defendant falsified data to increase the balance in his Bitcoin account without actually sending money there.

However, the judge acquitted Karpeles on the charge of embezzlement and another of aggravated breach of trust.

MtGox went under in 2014 after losing a massive amount of Bitcoins to unauthorized access from outside the company.

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