The CEO of the now-defunct Mt. Gox, Mark Karpeles, has urged a U.S federal judge of Illinois to dismiss the fraud lawsuit brought against him by a former customer using the defence that U.S courts have no jurisdiction over him as he currently resides in Japan.
A representative of Mark Karpeles informed the U.S District Court Judge, Gary Finerman, of his client not having the required ties within Illinois and also did not conduct his affairs with the state of Illinois for the lawsuit against him to be justified. The lawsuit against Karpeles alleged claims of conversion, negligence and fraud according to Law360.
The accusations stem from the bankruptcy filed by Mt. Gox back in 2014 due to having been hacked and allegedly embezzled. As a result of the aforementioned activities, Mt. Gox lost over a million bitcoins, the value of which sat at over $400 million going by the exchange rate in 2014 and if compared to the current value, the cost of those bitcoins would be over seven billion USD.
Karpeles is a French national, who is currently residing in Japan, is looking at an entry of fault claim being levied against him as Judge Feinerman order the court to hold the former CEO of Mt. Gox as a lead defendant in the case. Karpeles’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case against him using the claim they did not possess the amount of ‘minimum contacts’ required to establish ties within the state of Illinois.
Karpeles attorneys filed the following motion in order to dismiss the claim against him:
“Mr Karpeles expressly asserts that this Court lacks personal jurisdiction over him and preserves this objection and argument for all purposes…Because this Court lacks personal jurisdiction over Mr Karpeles, this proceeding against him must be dismissed with no further actions taken, including but not limited to the entry of any default.”
The Mt. Gox estate is at the moment holding 137,891 bitcoins, the reimbursement of which is to be handled by the firm’s trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi. The list of claims that are to be accepted or rejected is to be filed by the deadline on the 22nd of October, 2018 and the list will be revealed by Kobayashi on the 24th of January, 2019.
