Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles was investigated by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on suspicion of being behind his online drug market Silk Road. The information was revealed during the trial of Ross Ulbricht in New York.
DHS Special Agent in Charge Jared Der-Yeghiayan said Thursday that as early as 2012, there was evidence that led him to believe that Karpeles and his partner Ashley Barr was behind Silk Road.
The disclosure comes from Ulbricht's defense team, headed by Joshua Dratel's lawyer, who wants to convince the jury that Ulbricht founded the Silk Road, but Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR) was not the online alias used by its administrator by clicking heres.
Sarah Jeong of Forbes, who along with other reporters has been following the case from the courtroom, wrote Thursday that “the theory the DHS agent was that Karpeles was operating Silk Road to drive up the price of Bitcoin.”
The evidence, however, suggests that the theory of the DHS agent from the beginning to mid-2013 was that the Bitcoin exchange operated alongside Silk Road and that the investigations found that Mutum Sigilum's MT Gox and Karpeles subsidiary had registered under domain silkroadmarket.org.
Recall that the Mt Gox exchange was closed without warning last February, filing for bankruptcy later that month.
At that time, 500.000.000 dollars were lost to Bitcoin. Ross Ulbricht's trial will continue on Tuesday.