Texas judge orders Mt. Gox CEO to return to the U.S.

Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles has been ordered by a judge to return to the US to face questions over his bankruptcy filing with a Dallas court and how 750,000 Bitcoins went AWOL. Bankruptcy judge Stacey Jernigan ruled that Karpeles must appear at the Dallas office of his lawyers Baker & McKenzie on 17th April. This is ahead of a May 20 hearing which will decide whether the Bitcoin exchange will be granted Chapter 15 protection from creditors.

A judge in Texas has ordered Mark Karpeles, the CEO of failed Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, to go to the U.S. to answer questions about its bankruptcy. Judge Stacey Jernigan summoned Karpeles to appear on April 17 at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, according to a lawyer for the creditors of Mt. Gox. The court had granted the exchange temporary protection from creditors, but it must prove that it deserves full protection. In March, Mt. Gox customers Gregory Greene and Joseph Lack asked the judge to order Karpeles to go to the U.S. for a deposition to explain why it went bankrupt and what had happened to the bitcoins the exchange reported were missing. The pair are plaintiffs in an Illinois class-action lawsuit accusing Japan-based Mt. Gox of fraud.