You remember the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange?
People nearly ½ a billion dollars in Bitcoin, and now we discover that the head of the exchange was convicted of fraud in France, and had been sentenced to jail:
While Mt. Gox owner Mark Karpeles was growing what would become the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, he should have been serving time in his home country of France. He was sentenced to a year in custody in 2010 on fraud accusations.
A newly obtained French court document shows that Karpeles has a civil and non-civil judgment pending where, in addition to custody, he also owes €45,000 ($60,000). The document is being published jointly for the first time by Ars Technica and the French publication Le Monde. (Read the French original here and an English translation here.)
The case was brought by a former employer who accused Karpeles of stealing customer user names, customer passwords, and a domain name, among other grievances. Under French law, Karpeles is not considered a criminal but rather “un délinquant,” a delinquent offender. It’s a lesser label than “criminal,” because that word is reserved only for very serious crimes within the country.
The 2010 decision shows that Karpeles lost by default, and he was found liable of “fraudulent access to an automated data processing system” and “fraudulent changes to data contained in an automated data processing system.” The document also states that Karpeles admitted to French authorities that he had “pirated” a server.
At the time, Karpeles was living in Japan. But a year after the judgment, he’d taken over Mt. Gox, well before the exchange and digital currency had become a household name. The French court documents acknowledge that he was never notified of the case and did not defend himself—hence, he lost by default. Karpeles’ own blog states he moved to Japan in 2009, and it appears he hasn’t returned to France since.
“To be honest, I was not even aware of this,” he told Ars in May regarding the sentence. “I’ll investigate and see what has to be done.” Karpeles has not responded to numerous attempts for further comment since then.
Yeah. He, “Wasn’t aware of this.”
He was questioned by police, admitted wrongdoing, got out France when the getting was good, but he “Wasn’t aware of this.”
When you take a supporting role in a libertarian wet dream, you are painting a target on your back.