Japanese media reported that Mark Karpeles, the chief executive officer of Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange, was arrested by authorities in Japan on Saturday.
Details of the arrest have not been disclosed yet but local media confirmed the arrest of Karpeles, over the loss of about USD390 million worth of virtual currency.
The NHK reported that Karpeles was arrested on suspicion that he had accesed to the computer system of MtGox and was alleged involved in falsifying data about the exchange’s outstanding balance.
Earlier, Japan’s vice finance minister Jiro Aichi calls for an international cooperation in regulating the virtual currency bitcoin to avoid future problems.
Aichi said regulating bitcoin should be a task of international agencies and not just of Japan’s Ministry of Finance, as he emphasized that bitcoin is not a currency and is not issued by one central bank.
Japan was at the center of bitcoin controversy after the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, the world’s largest exchange for trading bitcoins, shutdown, leaving customers unable to recover their funds.
US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the Fed has no jurisdiction over bitcoin but she urged the US Congress to consider ways to regulate such virtual currencies. – BusinessNewsAsia.com