Mark Karpeles, the CEO of now defunct bitcoin exchange Mt Gox has been in the news since his arrest. He was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement, misuse of funds belonging to Mt Gox customers and for trying to manipulate account details on Mt Gox servers.
While the case is still under investigation by the Japanese law enforcement authorities, there have been few new developments in the Mark Karpeles case. According to few Japanese news media reports, Mark Karpeles has allegedly told the cops during interrogation that he was not responsible for manipulating account balances on Mt Gox systems. According to him, there was irregularities in accounting even before he took over Mt Gox from its previous owner.
Mark Karpeles is said to have said that he is a victim here and not the perpetrator as it is being believed. He is also said to have told the police that he doesn’t have any knowledge about the disappearance of bitcoin from the exchange. The news report also goes on and refers to Mark Karpeles as a genius with an intelligent quotient of over 190, which happens to be higher than that of most people.
The article points towards the actual founder of Mt Gox, whom it refers to as Mr X as the one who lied to Mark Karpeles about the bitcoin balance and offered wrong advice. It states one of Mark Karpeles’ friends to have mentioned that the bitcoin balance in Mt Gox was inaccurate even before Mark Karpeles decided to buy the exchange. But apparently Mr. X told Mark Karpeles that the difference in balance can be recovered easily if he follows the operation rules decided by him. However that approach was a failure, getting him into trouble.