At Mt Gox bitcoin hub, CEO sought both control and escape

If the above accounts of this guy and his "management" style are accurate, is at best extremely, grossly negligent and should be held personally liable. To think he had all those accounts, ostensibly worth millions, reduced to a list of handwritten passwords kept in his office is a colossally stupid practice; it is simply unimaginable that the head of a currency exchange would be so lazy.

It's too bad really. The guy basically had a huge opportunity fall into his lap - almost equivalent to winning a lottery, and he lost it all through mismanagement. With the amount of money he had coming in, he could have afforded to hire competent management.

By moving 424,242 bitcoins, Karpeles, then 26, evoked the random number, 42, described as the “meaning of life” in Douglas Adams’ sci-fi novel. “Don’t come after me claiming we have no coins,” Karpeles said, according to a transcript of that online discussion. “42 is the answer.”

The article forgot to point out that 424242 bitcoins are still sitting there in a wallet but only recently started to be reduced by 50-100 at time. This is how Mark is hiding all the bitcoin he stole from customers.

According to blog posts Karpeles wrote in 2006, he was arrested twice in France before he was 21 for computer fraud-related charges. One resulted in a 3-month suspended sentence. French authorities in Tokyo said they had seen confirmation of one prior conviction, but did not have details.

... how did Karpeles get into Japan with a criminal record? Are Japanese immigration looking into this?

combinibento,

While I agree he didn't have the skills to be running the outfit, I don't think he should be held personally liable.

People who lost loads of "money" have primarily themselves to blame, in my opinion. It's not like this was a registered or regulated operation. People who sent monies there in most cases failed to evaluate the risks, I suspect.

fxgai: Mark is a criminal, he stole the coins, he's an idiot, he defrauded customers not bitcoin itself. No other exchange has had any issues. I hope you are reading this Mark because many people want to see you in jail for a very very long time.

There was a report by some Swiss researchers that estimated only about 400 Bitcoins were stolen from Mt Gox. Mr Karpeles should explain what happened to the rest. It won't be too long now before he ends up in jail.

gogogo,

Well I just think this poor guy is innocent until proven guilty, and Mt. Gox was not a registered / regulated financial instruments operator in Japan.

Other exchanges have had no problems at all? To the extent that is true, great.

But how many of those other exchanges are regulated? What avenues do customers have for compensation should those exchanges no live up to expectations? If the answer to that is "none" then people are half crazy to put any significant amount of money into such an exchange.

I don't want to be involved in bailing out people who flush their own money down the toilet.

There is so much here that just screams "BS Artist". I hardly know where to begin. Multiple hacking/fraud convictions. Overt intimidation through the flaunting of obscene amounts of money. Freakishly inept managerial controls. Not to mention that his smarmy, three-chinned, greasy-haired smirk says "I'm better than you."

Bit coin was a shell game from the start. A geeky way for nerds to outsmart banks and tax authorities, the geeks were outsmarted themselves by drug dealers, money launderers, tax cheats, speculators and smarter hackers. that hijacked the entire system to serve as a means to their nefarious ends. This is why private currencies, unmonitored or controlled by central banks and subject to law should be illegal. They are a really nothing more than vehicles to separate unwitting investors (for whom I have limited sympathy. Either they failed to consider that increased return is always accompanied by increased risk, or they just thought they were too "advanced" for that stuff.) from their money.

Graham, we could remark on Karpeles' past history and the way he looks, but none of that ought to incriminate him at all before the law as far as the current case goes.

I don't agree bitcoins or alternatives should be made illegal. If people opt to risk their own money playing with bitcoins, that's simply their own business. This is hardly a societal issue that warrants government spending tax monies administering. (In the litigious USA however, it looks like the lawyers have found a new revenue stream...)

Government should just take a simple stance - they won't be regulating bitcoin dealers, so bitcoin users are own their own (good luck, and pay your taxes). If people want to have their money guaranteed by government, then sorry but you'll have to use the government regulated stuff.

its a scam.. run