Former Mt. Gox CEO claims he ‘doesn’t want’ $1 billion in leftover liquidation funds

The former chief executive of Mt. Gox, once the largest bitcoin exchange, said that he found the billion dollar windfall, which will come about as a result of the exchange’s bankruptcy procedures, to be “distasteful.”

Mark Karpeles who was talking at a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session, said the exchange would receive more than “160,000 bitcoin and bitcoin cash” ($1 billion at current prices).

Tokyo-based virtual currency exchange Mt. Gox shut down and went bankrupt in February 2014 after suffering the biggest cryptocurrency heist on record. Hundreds of thousands of bitcoins were stolen from the exchange which was handling around 80 percent of global bitcoin trades. Mt. Gox blamed hackers, pointing to a software security flaw.

Karpeles is currently fighting charges of embezzlement in Tokyo. He stands to receive millions expected to be left over after the exchange’s users have been reimbursed due to the fact all creditors would receive the value of their bitcoin holdings in Japanese yen, not bitcoin itself.

“I don’t want this. I don’t want these billion dollars. From day one I never expected to receive anything from this bankruptcy. The fact that today this is a possibility is an aberration and I believe it is my responsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

The disgraced CEO has pleaded not guilty and said he hopes to work again as an engineer but not necessarily for a cryptocurrency startup.

“I never imagined things would end this way and I am forever sorry for everything that’s taken place and all the effect it had on everyone involved,” he said.

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