One of the biggest problems in the crypto world today is hacking. In 2014, Mark Karpeles was the CEO of Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox until it went bankrupt in 2014. In the last four years, he had a hard time finding work. Mt. Gox announced that it lost 850,000 bitcoins making Karpeles the biggest villain in the world of cryptocurrencies.
And while Karpeles ended up recovering the 200,000 Mt. Gox bitcoins, authorities that there are still 650,000 other bitcoins stolen by hackers. As for Karpeles, he is currently facing charges in Japan for embezzlement, manipulation of electronic data, and breach of trust. Karpeles was in jail for almost a year when he was arrested in 2015.
He mentioned in an interview with Fortune that “I have no way to be sure that I’ll still be able to work in one year, two years”. He added that “So I cannot really get a normal full-time job”. This means that he acknowledges the probability that he could be sent back to jail at any given time.
Landing a New Job
However, he was able to land a new job. In fact, it is a major job post as a C-level executive at a US corporation. He is working as the new chief of tech officer of London Trust Media, a company based in Denver that offers the world’s largest paid virtual private network (VPN) service.
Their common denominator is that London Trust Media is also increasingly becoming invested in cryptocurrencies. The company is an early investor in Zcash which is a privacy-focused digital coin. It also backed Purse which is a startup that enabled users to buy Amazon items using their Bitcoin.
Karpeles was somewhat secretive when it comes to his new gig only saying that he had to juggle different IT consulting jobs from online video games to IP services, all of which totally unrelated to cryptos. He also initially refused to say the names of the employers saying that he is a contractor and prohibited from discussing the company.
He then recently updated his LinkedIn profile and opened up about his new gig. He mentioned that “I’d say that it’s currently my main job”.
London Trust Media
London Trust Media is happy regarding their new employee. Andrew Lee, who is the co-founder and chairman of lab division at London Trust Media mentioned that “Mark fought and fell. And although he fell, his skills, experience, and know-how unarguably continue to exist”.
He also added that “And so, bringing in a seasoned warrior makes perfect sense to me. I am more than willing to give a second chance to Mark in this fight’s critical hour”.
Could this actually be a new beginning for Mark Karpeles? When Lee mentioned “fight’s critical hour”, he mentioned the increasing scrutiny that regulators are doing over the crypto market. In fact, it includes the recent move by the New York attorney general just this week. Lee mentioned that Karpeles will be the one who is also in charge of the crypto ventures of the company as well as its other products.
