In his closing argument in a Tokyo court, Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange Mt.Gox, declared his innocence and non-involvement in the events that caused the firm to lose millions of dollars from its users and ultimately go bankrupt.
He has been charged with embezzling approximately 340 million yen (about $3 million) from an exchanger and manipulating information on the Mt.Gox website.
According to NHK, on Thursday Karpeles apologized for failing to protect users' digital assets from hacking, but stressed that he is innocent of all charges.
Mt.Gox was once the largest bitcoin exchange by trading volume, but in early 2014 it turned out that more than 800,000 bitcoins (at that time about $480 million) had disappeared from the exchange. The trial began in June this year after Karpeles was released on bail on the condition that he not leave Japan. At the time, he also denied the theft allegations were true.
Prosecutors say Capreles transferred ¥340 million belonging to Mt.Gox users to his own account between September and December 2013. He is also accused of manipulating data inside the Mt.Gox trading system to inflate the exchange's balances.
At trial, his legal team argued that the transfers of money to Karpeles's own account were carried out as part of the exchange's legal activities.
Earlier this month, local press reported that Karpeles, who initially faced 5 years in prison, could now receive the full 10. The court is expected to make a decision on March 15, 2019.
According to coindesk.com
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