Prosecutors on Wednesday proposed a 10-year prison sentence for former CEO of Mt.Gox - the world's former largest cryptocurrency exchange - Mark Karpeles.
Prosecutors accuse Karpeles of stealing about ¥340 million from customer accounts in the fourth quarter of 2013. According to them, Karpeles used this money to buy a business and pay rent.
Karpeles denies the theft of funds, saying that these funds should be considered as a temporary loan.
The Tokyo District Court prosecutor demanded a harsh sentence, arguing that the defense did not provide documents confirming the fact of the loan, and the defendant had no intention of returning the funds.
The exchange Mt.Gox went bankrupt in February 2014, after about 48 billion yen ($423 million) in bitcoins and another 2.8 billion yen in fiat disappeared from its accounts. Karpeles denies any involvement in this, attributing everything to hacking of the exchanger. Prosecutors did not investigate the cause of this incident.
In June of this year, the Tokyo District Court included the exchanger in the civil rehabilitation program, obliging it to repay debts to clients in Bitcoin, which has since risen significantly in price.
According to asia.nikkei.com
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