Former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles Rejects Brock Pierce's Plans to Reboot Exchange

Mark Karpeles - the former CEO of the now-defunct Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox - has refuted controversial crypto figure Brock Pierce's claims he can reboot the trading platform and accelerate compensation for Mr. Gox's creditors.

Karpeles made his remarks in private correspondence with Cointelegraph Japan on Feb. 12.As reported, Pierce - a crypto entrepreneur who co-founded Blockchain Capital, Block.

In recent comments to Cointelegraph, Karpeles challenged Pierce's legitimacy in claiming he has the rights and ability to relaunch the exchange.

The dispute hinges on a letter of intent to acquire Mt. Gox that was sent from Pierce's company Sunlot Holdings Ltd. to Karpeles back in 2014.

Karpeles' second contention was with Pierce's claims that his initiative could expedite creditor recovery.

Pierce has allegedly claimed it could be settled within a year, rather than the 3-5 years it is currently estimated to take under the stewardship of Tokyo attorney Nobuaki Kobayashi.

"As to distributing assets faster than the trustee, I haven't heard at this point anything that would make this possible from Gox Rising [sic]. The published plans seem to imply reviving Mt. Gox and creating a lot of complex legal structures which may take time to happen."

As reported, Pierce's plans hinge on his success in galvanizing around half of the exchange's creditors - 12,000 out of 24,000 individuals - to join GoxRising.

As reported in December, Karpeles pleaded not guilty in the final argument for his ongoing trial.

Karpeles was charged with embezzlement of approximately 340 million yen from Mt. Gox and manipulating the exchange's ledgers to inflate its cash balance.