Mark Karpelès, the ex-CEO of defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, will have to face a class-action lawsuit in Philadelphia about the notorious company‘s demise five years ago.
It comes after District Judge Robert Kelly threw out Karpelès’ request to dismiss the suit, which alleges he hid problems at the exchange from its users, Reuters reports.
The case was brought forward by Gregory Pearce, a former Mt. Gox customer, who is representing himself as well as other victims affected by the exchange‘s failure.
According to documents submitted in court, Pearce claims Karpelès was aware of “security bugs in the system but did not make these defects known to the public.”
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Karpelès has been involved in several lawsuits over the years. In fact, back in March, he said he would appeal a court ruling, which found him guilty of manipulating the financial records of his embattled cryptocurrency exchange to conceal its massive losses.
By 2013 and into 2014, Mt. Gox was reportedly handling more than 70 percent of all Bitcoin transactions worldwide. When the company collapsed in early 2014, it said it lost almost 750,000 of its customers‘ Bitcoins, as well as around 100,000 of its own coins, a total sum of approximately $473 million near the time of the filing.
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