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State owned media outlet, Russia Today (RT), reports the suicide of an exchange CEO was in actuality something more sinister and connected to Mt. Goxâ 650,000 still missing bitcoin, according to RTâs exclusive source.
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RTâs Exclusive Source: CEO Death Linked to Missing Gox Bitcoin
âThe hundreds of thousands of bitcoins stolen from the Mt. Gox exchange four years ago could be recovered, but there are powerful forces against it,â an unsigned RT article begins ominously, citing an exclusive source. Someone âdoesnât want them found.â
Mt. Gox back in 2014 was 7 parts of every 10 bitcoin transactions. Two months into its near-four year run, and the Tokyo-based exchange had gone belly up. Hundreds of thousands of bitcoin were missing, vanished, assumed hacked. During subsequent bankruptcy proceedings, about a quarter of the disappeared cryptocurrency was recovered, but the remaining 650,000 continued missing. As of this writing, the price of bitcoin today would make the Gox ghost coins worth over ten billion dollars.
âNot long after the exchangeâs collapse,â the RT story continues, âthe public was shocked by the death of a virtual currency exchange First Metaâs CEO,â Autumn Radtke, an American living in Singapore trying to succeed in the hurried start-up world of bitcoin. RT characterizes her death as âhaving fallen from her apartment building in Singapore. Some media reported it was a suicide while others referred to it as a âquestionable financial-sector death.ââ
According to RTâs exclusive source, William Mook, Ms. Radtke âand her team and others, quietly found half the bitcoins that were supposedly stolen by Mt. Gox,â Mr. Mook claims, according to the article. âWe had hopes the balance of the âlostâ Mt. Gox coins could be recovered as well.â
Mr. Mook is then allowed to express how Ms. Radtkeâs death came âshortly after a Japanese court was advised of the finding,â the unsigned article paraphrases. Mr. Mookâs next lines are quoted by RT in italization for emphasis, âHer team and others associated with the effort disappeared. Websites closed down. This is a frightening development. That person and that team, me included, were frightened off.â
Discrepancies
Russia Today has a mixed reputation among professional journalists. Unafraid to criticize in particular US institutions, it can give voice to opinions never heard by an American mainstream audience, a group which is often insulated from how the rest of the world views it and its governmentâs policies. That relative story freedom comes with a price, and journalistic standards can suffer.
Mr. Mook is a fringe thinker brought to RT back in 2013-ish when Max Keiserâs program was first fleshing out bitcoin. Mr. Mook is an Ohio expat living in New Zealand. Not too many could speak on cryptocurrencies and their implications back then, and mainstream journalists wouldnât touch the subject other than in ridicule. This left an opening. Brought aboard RT by Australian economist Steve Keen, another RT regular, Mr. Mook just appeared. His byline in about every story is âbitcoin entrepreneur.â Your mom is a bitcoin entrepreneur.
Sometimes Mr. Mook is a ârocket scientist,â still other times an âalternative energy expert,â and yet again rolled up into all three ending in something-something âbitcoin.â Heâs wowed such outlets with 700,000 USD price-point predictions for bitcoin, and isnât afraid to rattle off how fiat money will end and banks will disappear in âtwenty four monthsâ (his phrase of choice). His statements should be countered with heavy doses of the large grain sea salt surrounding New Zealand.
Skittishness in reporting suicide, especially among friends and coworkers, is hardly cause for alarm or intrigue. People close to the person who took her life do not wish to sour the situation further, or hope the family will learn truths of the matter from less public sources. Autumn Radtkeâs death was formally ruled a suicide.
Irresponsible
Friends appeared to know Ms. Radtke was struggling with something, as a news report detailed at the time: âOn February 10, Radtke posted a link to an essay entitled âThe Psychological Price of Entrepreneurshipâ and commented obliquely that âEverything has its priceâ. In comments posted on the day her death was announced, her friend Krystal Choo said that âThis exact post has been killing me. I should have known in a way she was reaching out. I failed her.ââ Not really the words one would expect to read if foul play were thought involved.
As for âquestionable financial sector death,â that phrase first appears in a blog post filled with hysterics. Simply listing facts doesnât mean theyâre connected. People are drowning at the beach. Ice cream is sold at the beach. Therefore, ice cream causes drowning. It might be emotionally appealing, but rigorously logical it ainât.
For more on Ms. Radtke and her battle with depression, a great place to start would be Jacky Yapâs piece for Vulcan Post. To even allude her death was something other than suicide, with recourse only to proving a negative, is irresponsible to say the least (and consider her family and friends whoâre no doubt reliving it again as a result).
With regard to Ms. Radtke, her team, and Japanese court filings suggesting her connection to finding Gox bitcoin, not a shred of proof has been produced. And that which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
However, there is a story, a real one, about Goxâs missing 650,000 bitcoin. News.Bitcoin.com covered it beautifully and responsibly, and itâs a humdinger of a read. Turns out Chainalysis says it knows exactly where the coins are, and its co-founder Jonathan Levin even testified before congress to that fact. And he is still very much alive. For now.
What are your thoughts on the missing Mt. Gox bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images: Pixabay, Twitter. Additional sourcing for this story by Jamie Redman.
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The post Mt. Gox Bitcoin Missing In relation to Mysterious Death of Exchange CEO appeared first on Bitcoin News.
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