Court of Illinois, despite the already open case in Japan, rejected the petition of lawyers of the former CEO of bankrupt bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox Mark Karpeles to suspend proceedings against him in the USA. This writes FinanceFeeds.
A petition Karpeles filed on Monday, February 25, noting that the ongoing in Japan, the process of civil rehabilitation, Mt. Gox will lead to the fact that the plaintiffs in the person of Gregory Greene and Anthony Motto most likely completely will receive their compensation.
In addition, the lawyers Karpeles insisted that in this case a class action lawsuit is not the right way to resolve differences.
With regard to these two plaintiffs, they seek recognition of personal responsibility of the French entrepreneur for the loss of their investment in Mt. Gox, noting that are unable to make refunds as a result of the bankruptcy of the exchange.
Mark Karpeles, however, believes that the significant increase in the price of bitcoin after collapse of Mt. Gox gives grounds to say that the plaintiffs will receive their compensation at the end of the trial, which concurrently takes place in Japan. For this reason, as well as avoid unnecessary legal costs business in the United States, insisted Karpeles should be suspended.
However, the judge of the Northern district court of Illinois Gary Feinerman Thursday, 28 February, Karpeles petition was rejected. Simultaneously, the court decided to extend the deadline for responses on submitted documents until may 15, 2019.
Once the largest bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox collapsed in early-2014. This happened after the recent information about its alleged hacking and theft of 800,000 BTC ($480 million at the time). In December last year, Karpeles during the closing speech at the Tokyo trial called himself innocent in the events that led to multimillion losses of customers and the collapse of the company.
Note that directly in the multimillion-dollar losses exchange Karpeles was not accused. However, prosecutors allege that in the period between September and December 2013 he transferred to your account belonging to the users of 340 million yen ($3 million). According to the authorities, these funds Karpeles used to invest in business related to software development.
Protection Karpeles claims that the transfer of funds was carried out without violations, in the framework of the business model of Mt. Gox, however, if you can’t prove innocence Karpeles, he faces ten years in prison.
Source
