Bankruptcy Trustee Attorney Mr. Nobuaki Kobayashi overseeing the estate of infamous bankrupt Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has today provided an update on the present situation of the estate.
Mr. Kobayashi reported the balance of the account he has secured for the estate as of March 7, 2017, stands at JPY 1,030,895,045 a decrease of JPY 23,500,000 from the last creditors’ meeting. He cautioned that the status of BTC holdings of Mt. Gox is still ongoing, thus the balance does not include BTC held by the bankrupt exchange.
Further, the balance of BTC managed by the estate as of March 5, 2017, stands at 202,185.36428254 BTC. If investigations mentioned above bear fruit, any found BTC from Mt. Gox will be moved to a wallet address managed by Mr. Kobayashi.
Claims Accepted Few and Far Between
On May 25, 2016, the date of the investigation of claims, Mr. Kobayashi completed the task of accepting or rejecting each of the claims against Mt. Gox seeking a refund of BTC or money that was filed by users of the exchange.
A summary of the status of claims can be seen below and speaks for itself:
142 petitions against rejected claims have been filed, and 19 objections have been retracted and users granted claims in those cases. Meanwhile, 74 petitions have been decided in court where claimants have accepted the result.
Mr. Kobayashi stated:
“Going forward, I will continue to make an effort to end the remaining petitions as soon as possible.”
“I am conducting investigations into whether any BTC or money in other currencies that were possessed by or under the control of Mt. Gox have disappeared, and if they have, the events leading to such disappearance by delegating such work to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu LLC and ReEX Accounting Firm as well as by obtaining the assistance of our supporting company, Payward.”
Other Notes
- The estate is making efforts to collect on loan receivables of the affiliated bankrupt companies of Mt. Gox.
- Also, on February 6, 2017, Mr. Kobayashi filed a bankruptcy claim for the amount of JPY 25,190,162,021 against prosecuted Mt. Gox representative director and founder Robert Marie Mark Karpeles.
- US courts today approved the transfer of $2,571,201.10 of seized funds of Mt. Gox affiliate Mutum Sigillum LLC to Mt. Gox Estate Trustee Mr. Kobayashi. Mutum, owned by Mr. Karpeles was charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
- Mr. Kobayashi concluded by saying that since all bankruptcy claims have been accepted or rejected the estate wishes to proceed to the final distribution process as soon as possible.
- However, the schedule and timing of distributions depend on each creditor’s response to the acceptance or rejection of their claim.
- Where a distribution is possible Mr. Kobayashi continues to consider whether the distribution will be made by way of BTC.
With the recent increase in the price of BTC, it makes things a bit more interesting for those seeking claims as depending on how many BTC claimed, they could have a lot to gain or miss out on. The Mt. Gox mayhem was a real mess for bitcoin and dented trust in the digital asset on the Japan street.
However, reputation has since recovered in the last few years, with new insurance schemes being developed to protect Japanese exchange users from something like Mt. Gox happening again. Also helping recover is the on-going discussions for government regulation and oversight of the digital currency space, with new laws due to come into effect this year in Japan.