United States Bankruptcy Judge Stacey Jernigan has ordered that Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles appear in Dallas, Texas at the offices of Baker & McKenzie, the firm that represents his company here in the States for a deposition, Reuters reports. Karpeles has been ordered to appear on April 17th.
The move comes following a Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection filing in Texas last month, in which the company sought protection from creditors in the United States.
“If he avails himself of this court, my God, he is going to get himself over here,” the Judge was quoted as saying.
By nature of the Chapter 15 filing, protection is not granted automatically. The company will have to prove at a May 20 hearing that bankruptcy protection is deserved.
Scores of former Mt. Gox clients are demanding answers from the exchange’s head honcho, who is assumed to be the only at the company with answers as to what doomed the oldest and once-largest bitcoin exchange. In February, the company announced they lost upwards of 700,000 bitcoin that belonged to investors — worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Attorney John Mitchell of the law firm representing Mt. Gox proposed replacing Mark Karpeles as a “foreign representative” of the exchange, which the Judge reportedly did not like.
“He filed this case,” she said.
Judge Jernigan ordered that questions to Karpeles asked during the deposition relate directly as to whether or not should be granted the bankruptcy protection.
Developing.