For the record, former head of fallen Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, Mark Karpeles has said he is not the Bitcoin underworld leader of the “Silk Road” website, who went by the alias Dread Pirate Roberts. Now, he has said many other things before that people simply don’t believe, so take the following quotes under advisement. He’s not exactly a beacon of credibility.
“I’m not a pirate nor a fraudster,” Karpeles told the Daily Beast. “Nor, for the record, am I the creator of Bitcoin, the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto.”
The publication interviewed Karpeles after he was mentioned prominently in the current Manhattan trial of Ross Ulbricht. Ulbricht is the current leading candidate for the title of “Dread Pirate Roberts,” who allegedly ran the online black market website. Karpeles’ name came up during Ulbricht’s defense, in which they were questioning a Department of Homeland Security agent who said he first began to suspect Karpeles was in charge of the Silk Road in April 2012.
Prior to it’s FBI closure in October of 2013, Silk Road is alleged to have generated more than $1 billion in total revenue. Silk Road sold everything from writing assignments and jewelry, to guns drugs and ammunition to Bitcoin owners for over two years. Ulbricht admits starting the website, but stepping away from an active leadership position after it’s founding, and insists he is not Dread Pirate Roberts himself.
Karpeles was once the leader of Mt. Gox, the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world before it’s collapse in early 2014. Mt. Gox “lost” over 750k Bitcoins, worth over $400 million USD at the time. To this day, they are unaccounted for. Karpeles has blamed hackers for stealing the BTC. Last March, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in Japan.
In a tweet on Friday evening, Karpeles wanted to clarify what he meant by “pirate,” by saying “I am not and have never been Dread Pirate Roberts.”
