Mark Karpeles Open Letter to Coinlab Looks to Settle Lawsuit for $5M

On May 10 Bitcoin.com reported on how bitcoin’s price rise is slowly bringing the Mt Gox bankruptcy closer to solvency. The former CEO of Mt Gox Mark Karpeles confirmed that the price was helping, but the Coinlab lawsuit was a significant deterrent. Now Karpeles has written an open letter to Coinlab’s founder Peter Vessenes asking him to settle the lawsuit for five million.

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 Mark Karpeles Openly Asks Coinlab to Drop the $75 Million Lawsuit

Lately, Mt Gox claimants have been focused on the words of Mark Karpeles, as he seems to be trying to help people reclaim their funds these days. Karpeles has been talking with Mt Gox claimants on Reddit and telling them bitcoin’s rising price may help the bankruptcy claims. However, because Coinlab is suing Mt Gox for $75 million the defunct trading platform’s customers may not see their money for a very long time.

The problem started when Mt. Gox and Coinlab announced they were forming a partnership where the Canadian company Coinlab would take over the exchange’s American customers. The deal never materialized because Coinlab says Mt Gox breached a contract clause. Furthermore, the trading platform was subsequently hacked and was followed by bankruptcy. Karpeles recent “Open letter to Peter Vessenes,” says now the lawsuit is impeding customers who don’t deserve to lose funds because of a bad business arrangement.       

“This lawsuit today is not CoinLab vs. MtGox, but CoinLab vs. the MtGox customers, now creditors, who have done nothing to deserve being involved in this,” explains Karpeles.

I am writing today in hope to convince you to agree to settle this lawsuit for the five million USD which you owe to Mt Gox since four years ago.

‘A Hope to Stop Hostilities and Accept the Situation’

Currently, the CoinLab vs. MtGox lawsuit has been transferred to Japan and documents are locked inside the Tokyo District Court. There have been many bitcoin enthusiasts who believe Coinlab’s lawsuit is unjust and seriously deterring Mt Gox claims over the course of over three years. There is even an organization called Goxdox II, that has a website filled with disturbing issues and leaked documents concerning the CoinLab vs. MtGox lawsuit.

Karpeles agrees the lawsuit is undeserving as he writes to Vessenes saying “maybe it’d be time to consider you have gone far enough and stop with this farce.” The former Mt Gox CEO says Coinlab should settle for the $5 million the company has owed the exchange for over four years.

What I am hoping for today is to see both sides stop hostilities and accept the situation. Your $75 million USD against Mt Gox and Tibanne is clearly without merit, Coinlab never suffered any losses and never even started providing the expected service, and Mt Gox will never see the $5 million USD Coinlab kept.

Former Mt Gox CEO Believes Bankruptcy Trustee Would Agree to the Settlement

Karpeles says he hopes Vessenes will see the post on the Mt Gox insolvency Reddit forum and “stop this while it still makes sense to do so.” He also details that he has no authority to authorize a settlement but believe the bankruptcy trustee would agree to the suggestion.

“Some creditors may argue this is way more than you deserve for having provided virtually nothing to Mt Gox, but at this point going further would only increase costs without any relief in sight, instead delaying further something that shouldn’t take that long,” explains Karpeles.

Whether or not Coinlab and the company’s CEO Peter Vessenes will respond remains to be seen. Allegedly the Coinlab executive wrote on Mt Gox insolvency forum that he was receiving a number of emails concerning the bankruptcy. In the forum post, Vessenes says the rumors that the CoinLab vs. MtGox lawsuit is impeding the bankruptcy is incorrect information. However, the Reddit comment has since been deleted, but a screenshot of the statement was captured.

What do you think about Mark Karpeles open letter to Peter Vessenes? Do you think Coinlab should settle with Mt Gox for $5 million? Do you think the lawsuit is impeding the bankruptcy claims? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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