The Mt. Gox story just gets uglier

Marketwatch.com reported that Mt. Gox had filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the United States. Chapter 15 is typically the chapter filed for when a company is dealing with insolvency issues in multiple countries.

This comes just a couple of weeks after the company’s bankruptcy protection filing in Japan, where Mt. Gox is headquartered.

Alleged accounting information hack

Meanwhile, it appears hackers got into both Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles blog and the company’s database. They then dumped an alleged cache of files both on Karpeles’ blog and on Reddit.

It’s not worth analyzing the contents of the leaked files because we have no way of confirming the documents’ authenticity.

However, it is worth noting the vitriol and anger that appeared to resonate among certain people when the docs leaked. This is the cryptocurrency world’s analogue to an angry mob with torches and pitchforks.

To the Blockchain!

Meanwhile, members of that mob have been busy the last few weeks poring over transactions on the blockchain, trying to find evidence that Karpeles or someone at Mt. Gox has control over any of the 850,000 Bitcoins reported missing in the bankruptcy filing.

The /r/Bitcoin subreddit has been littered with posts questioning the movements of various bunches of Bitcoins:

To be fair, these users are asking necessary questions because that 850K is somewhere. But when this much money is involved, it’s best to hold Internet sleuthing at arm’s length.

Links:

• Mt. Gox files Chapter 15 in US
• Mt. Gox CEO’s blog hacked, allegedly reveals company’s true Bitcoin balances