US Court Freezes Assets of Mt. Gox CEO 132
jfruh writes "Mt. Gox has managed to enter court-protected bankruptcy in the United States, but Gregory Greene, who lost $25,000 in the bitcoin company's collapse, has convinced a court in Chicago to freeze the assets of Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles and two companies associated with him. 'Money is moving around as we speak, bitcoins are moving around accounts associated with Mt. Gox,' said Greene's lawyer. 'Something is not right so we urgently need to get to the bottom of this quickly.'"
The Mt Gox stole the missing bitcoins theory.
Re:Interesting parallel (Score:2, Informative)
But in America, if it has value, it can be seized.
Re:good move (Score:4, Informative)
MtGox has had this coming. They need to provide answers.
I don't see this as anything other than routing criminal proceedings.
Actually, it's a civil suit so the judge froze assets to prevent them from disappearing while the suit sorts itself out. It doesn't cover all the entities since some are in bankruptcy proceedings; once discovery starts it will be interesting to see what is revealed.
Re:Interesting parallel (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Interesting parallel (Score:5, Informative)
It's funny when the financial press mistakes MtGOX (Magic the Gathering Online Exchange, lest we forget) for "Mt. Gox", like it was a mountain or something.
It's funny when pretentious Slashdot posters trot out some half-understood fact to sound important. Mt. Gox has gone by "Mt. Gox" for quite some time on mtgox.com, on Wikipedia, and on Bitcoin Charts -- as well as in common use in Bitcoin forums.
Re:Interesting parallel (Score:4, Informative)
No. Each country has an official currency that the government use for accounting, to tax, and to pay. In the USA that is the US dollar. These official currencies are unique and irreplaceable for that reason. The government could choose to change to another currency, but you as an individual or company can't.
When you are taxed, you can't do it with bitcoin. You will be taxed on the official currency equivalent, and will have to pay in actual US dollars.
You libertarians are too hooked on the gold standard. The major fiat currencies are more stable. Take a look at a chart of the value of gold.
Re:good move (Score:4, Informative)
Or perhaps he "lucked out" and his account with Mt. Gox came out whole with a clean transfer to the outside, while everyone else's bitcoin "disappeared" with the sinking ship.
Under bankruptcy law, this would be known as "fraudulent conveyance". Courts don't look upon this kindly.