Mark Karpales, the former CEO of scandal-hit Bitcoin trading emporium Mt. Gox, has been arrested this morning by Japanese police. They suspect he had something to do with the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin.
Specifically, Tokyo police are alledging that Karpales manipulated his own account at Mt. Gox to show an increase of around $1 million. That wouldn’t exactly come as a surprise, given Karpales’ past history with internet fraud, or the reports that the Mt. Gox heist was an inside job.
Karpales reportedly denied the allegations when contacted by the Wall Street Journal, calling them “false”, and saying he would “of course deny” them. Either way, Karpales’ arrest is of little comfort to Mt. Gox’s former customers — his arrest doesn’t magically make $500 million reappear.
[Wall Street Journal, Reuters]
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