Mark Karpeles – the former head of the Bitcoin (BTC) exchange firm Mt.Gox that went bankrupt 5 years ago – had been declared guilty with making illegal changes to financial data and was consequently sentenced to prison.

As Bloomberg reported on March 15th, the Tokyo District Court has charged Karpeles with misappropriating millions of the customers fund with his own finances in an attempt to hide the firm’s stolen money during cyber attacks. 2,5 years of jail time will only be effective should he committed another offence in the next 4 years.

However, the court has dismissed the charges accusing the former Mt.Gox of alleged embezzlement, saying “The charge of electronic record tampering is true and deserves punishment, but there’s no criminal evidence of embezzlement.”

The now-defunct Mt.Gox has suffered from a severe cyber attack in 2011 that affected up to 24,000 creditors. The crypto exchange has then filed for bankruptcy in 2014, with 850,000 Bitcoin (an equivalent of around $460 million at the time) have been reportedly lost.

Karpeles has been claiming himself innocent since the start of his trial in 2017. He further claimed to be treated unfairly by the Japanese government, with zero legal rights along with being interrogated on a monthly basis that made him to confess unwillingly.

Furthermore, in March 2019, regarding his rehabilitation process a US court of law has reportedly dismissed Karpeles’ appeal to stay a separate lawsuit, holding him accountable for the investors’ lost assets.