Convicted Ponzi scheme operator Trendon Shavers is now insinuating the major unidentified debtor cited in his defense against the SEC may have been Mark Karpeles, CEO of the now-defunct bitcoin exchange Mt Gox. The claims, while veiled, stem from a new interview for the popular industry podcast Bitcoin Uncensored , in which Shavers faced questions about the history of Bitcoin Savings and Trust (BTCST), an investment operation later deemed a Ponzi scheme in multiple court litigations. Investors lost as much as 700,000 BTC through the scheme, which collapsed in late 2012. In a court deposition , Shavers claimed that BTCST’s largest debtor, who was unidentified in public records, defaulted on a 202,000 BTC loan, thereby triggering the capital shortfall that accelerated its demise. However, he would go on to admit that "he has no proof at all of the lending activities he supposedly undertook for BTCST", including the major borrower. Where does Karpeles factor into this? During the interview, Shavers references the debtor as someone connected to "a very, very big exchange" but stopped short of identifying the figure. When pressed by co-hosts Chris DeRose and Joshua Unseth, he said the person was a "very well-known" exchange operator. When asked if the debtor "[has] black hair and a cat" (a reference to both Karpeles’ physical appearance and his cat Tibanne), Shavers began to laugh, and jokingly asked, "Does he speak Japanese?" At that point, Jason Seibert, Shavers’ attorney, taking part in the interview, intervened. He went on to say that "this is one of the things he can’t talk about". Seibert declined to comment for this story when reached. Claims scrutinized That Karpeles would seek a massive loan seems plausible given that Mt Gox’s money problems predate its collapse by as many as three years. A 2015 report from […]
