Former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles to Appeal Conviction

Mark Karpeles, former CEO of the long-defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, is to appeal his conviction on data manipulation charges earlier this month.

According to a report from The Associated Press on Friday, Karpeles said he had decided to appeal because the Tokyo District Court did not fully look at the defense arguments.

A different report from The Mainichi on the Karpeles case, today cited anonymous sources as saying that Japanese prosecutors have decided not to appeal the court's acquittal of Karpeles on charges of embezzlement.

The prosecutors had been seeking a 10-year jail term on the charges.

On March 15, the Tokyo District Court found Karpeles guilty of wrongfully making electronic records connected to Mt. Gox's books, but innocent on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust.

In early 2014, Mt. Gox revealed it had previously suffered a massive hack involving 850,000 bitcoin, some of which was.

Nobuyasu Ogata, Karpeles' lawyer in the case, told AP that he welcomed the court's acquittal of Karpeles on some charges as "a proper decision." He further argued that his client was "Actually a victim" and had been trying to minimize damage at the exchange after the breach as such, Karpeles' actions shouldn't be considered "Illegitimate."

Karpeles has reiterated his innocence and apologized.

Several times since the collapse of Mt. Gox.

Last August, the Japanese bankruptcy court that initially oversaw the case sided.