Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles Lands New Job — CTO for Cryptocurrency Firm
The Notorious Mark Karpeles Lands a C-Level Position With a Firm That Dabbles in Cryptocurrency Investments and Runs the Largest VPN Service Worldwide
Mark Karpeles is starting a new job, and he will be working with a company that’s into technology like virtual private networks (VPN) and cryptocurrencies. Karpeles has accepted a CTO position at a firm called London Trust Media (LTM), a company that owns VPN providers such as Private Internet Access, but has also injected funds into digital currency investments such as Purse.io, Zcash, Blockexplorer, and more. The former Mt Gox founder will now work remotely for the Denver-based firm who oversees the world’s largest VPN company alongside its recent cryptocurrency investments.
It seems Karpeles also lives a paranoid life, where he switches apartments in Japan every few months in fear of his safety. Karpeles also is afraid to set his bag down when being interviewed by the press in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. Karpeles is still on trial for embezzlement charges and in Japan, there is a 99 percent conviction rate. The case could still see an outcome where the former cryptocurrency exchange operator finds himself in prison.
“After I came out, I felt like in a kind of dream, like I didn’t feel things were real — Even today I’m not sure yet,” Karpeles explains this week in Tokyo.
A Second Chance in This Fight’s Critical Hour
Karpeles also believes the administrators behind the Russian bitcoin exchange BTC-e and the accused Alexander Vinnik were behind a string of attacks that hit Mt Gox back in 2011. Alexander Vinnik had been arrested in Greece for being a suspect in a massive money laundering law enforcement sting, and allegedly Vinnik and BTC-e had connections with the missing Mt Gox funds. “What he did, Mt Gox is a victim of this, which means that all creditors are victims of this, and I am too a victim of this,” explains Karpeles in his recent interview. However, Vinnik has denied allegations of being tied to BTC-e, and the Russian has not yet been charged with any connections to the Mt Gox investigation.
Karpeles’ new C-level position for a firm that dabbles in cryptocurrency investments also follows his recent statements on a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) about not wanting to receive the possible billion-dollar bankruptcy settlement that he could inherit. Moreover, even though Karpeles accepted a job as the CTO at London Trust Media he recently explained he wants very little to do with the cryptocurrency industry.
“The only thing I’m touching related to cryptocurrency is how to solve this bankruptcy — Nothing more,” Karpeles states.
Bitcoin right now is, I believe, doomed.
The company London Trust Media is pleased to welcome the former Mt Gox CEO onboard as the firm’s new CTO. Andrew Lee, the co-founder, and chairman of London Trust Media explains he looks forward to helping Karpeles move forward. “I am more than willing to give a second chance to Mark in this fight’s critical hour,” Lee notes.