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Topic: This guy accidentally sent 800 coins to an old Mt.Gox address - he needs help (Read 6989 times)

legendary
Activity: 3038
Merit: 1032
RIP Mommy
I'm not surprised he got them back. The MtGox bankruptcy administrator is under the court's microscope, unlike the average private key holder.
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 1000
Satoshi is rolling in his grave. #bitcoin
I wonder how much the lawyer cost.

Would be surprised if it wasnt 4 figure number, when he also rewarded someone with 2,4 btc.
Anyways, im glad dude got his coins back.

Its insane enough to send coins without tripple checking the address, but to recover them from something like mt.gox, he must have one good guardien angel above his head.

Cheers
legendary
Activity: 1789
Merit: 1008
Keep it dense, yeah?
Glad to hear that he got his coins back, and that he has dished out some coins as thanks (quote taken from his Reddit post @ http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/29tdt3/remember_the_800_btc_fuckup_guy/ciobxk0):

Quote
I have recovered my bitcoins!
Special thanks to:
/u/throwaway43572
Bobby Lee of BTC China
The Bitcoin Foundation
Mark Karpeles
and
Uchida & Samejima Law Firm in Tokyo
/u/throwaway43572 has been rewarded 2.5 BTC
And I will be making a donation to the Bitcoin Foundation shortly.
Thanks for your support.
Any questions?

Interesting addition there in his list of thanks.

The owner of the coins must be feeling so relieved now as that must have been quite an ordeal. That's nearly $500k worth of coins, more importantly now, it's 800 BTC!
hero member
Activity: 588
Merit: 500
Get ready for PrimeDice Sig Campaign!
Congrats man! I'm glad to see you got your coins back. Losing that much money would probably result in suicide by some people
legendary
Activity: 3038
Merit: 1032
RIP Mommy
I wonder how much the lawyer cost.
legendary
Activity: 2240
Merit: 1001
Just wanted to give everyone an update... the guy got his coins back.

Details are here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/29tdt3/remember_the_800_btc_fuckup_guy/ciobxk0

nice

that was a lot of coins lol
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 250
Online at CoinFire.io
Just wanted to give everyone an update... the guy got his coins back.

Details are here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/29tdt3/remember_the_800_btc_fuckup_guy/ciobxk0
hero member
Activity: 504
Merit: 500
Moderator
Apologies for digging up a semi-old thread but it seems that the coins have recently moved:

http://blockchain.info/tx/5f2e0c373b515ab6fdd4b479f328ba3e5a0aa3c53cd2c3835e9d479b1949f13a

Now that address has a balance of 0 BTC. What's going on here?

It seems Mark won´t have any trouble how to pay his rent for the next months.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
Apologies for digging up a semi-old thread but it seems that the coins have recently moved:

http://blockchain.info/tx/5f2e0c373b515ab6fdd4b479f328ba3e5a0aa3c53cd2c3835e9d479b1949f13a

Now that address has a balance of 0 BTC. What's going on here?
legendary
Activity: 1386
Merit: 1000
i dont understand people who have so much btc.

this guy have maybe maybe several million dollar in btc.
Why you dont cash out and make a nice live?

now he lose 500.000 Dollar
hero member
Activity: 674
Merit: 500
Thanks for the input everybody.  I've retained a lawyer in Tokyo, and am trying to get a hold of anybody at Mt. Gox simultaneously.

If they still have the private key of that address, you should have a good chance getting your bitcoin back.
Good luck. Smiley
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
Thanks for the input everybody.  I've retained a lawyer in Tokyo, and am trying to get a hold of anybody at Mt. Gox simultaneously.

I really hope you get all of your coins back. I have less than a bit coin to my name and tend to get nervous when moving even .0001 around. 
legendary
Activity: 826
Merit: 1002
amarha
Thanks for the input everybody.  I've retained a lawyer in Tokyo, and am trying to get a hold of anybody at Mt. Gox simultaneously.

Good luck. I hope it works out.

Please keep us updated. I really think there is a good chance you can get the coins back.

Also if they do have the private key and are able to access that wallet it's a good sign for people who have money at gox. So I'm sure people will be interested to hear what happens there.
hero member
Activity: 588
Merit: 500
Get ready for PrimeDice Sig Campaign!
I hope you have best of luck and I will be praying for you
newbie
Activity: 10
Merit: 0
Thanks for the input everybody.  I've retained a lawyer in Tokyo, and am trying to get a hold of anybody at Mt. Gox simultaneously.
legendary
Activity: 1001
Merit: 1005
First of all, what was the reply from mtgox support?
Did you write to magicalTux (Mark) on the forums?

Go on IRC and catch magicalTux. He comes now and then. Ask him politely to send your bitcoins back.

I don't see why they cannot be returned. This incident happened after the bankruptcy filing. His only excuse is "Sorry we lost the private key".. Keep an eye on the coins.

tss
hero member
Activity: 742
Merit: 500
I think you were lucky. If you were going to send 800BTC to an incorrect address, you could hardly have picked a better one to do it. Mtgox being run by a court appointed trustee, not being allowed to accept new deposits, your odds of recovering your funds seem far better than with any address in my btc addressbook.

the odds of winning pick 4 seem far better than mega millions
legendary
Activity: 980
Merit: 1040
I think you were lucky. If you were going to send 800BTC to an incorrect address, you could hardly have picked a better one to do it. Mtgox being run by a court appointed trustee, not being allowed to accept new deposits, your odds of recovering your funds seem far better than with any address in my btc addressbook.
sr. member
Activity: 274
Merit: 250
From the May 21st letter:

Quote
Quote
(6)
(i) Persons owing debts to the bankrupt entity are not to repay such debts to the bankrupt entity.
(ii) Persons possessing assets of the bankrupt entity are not to deliver such assets to the bankrupt entity.

Seems to me that no such money should be changing hands and that you should get your 800 BTC back. With that said, the person controlling the wallet will have to cooperate. I hope that you get your BTC returned.

tss
hero member
Activity: 742
Merit: 500
i hope this is all a great rouse in a valiant attempt to create accountability towards former gox assets.

i hope "pg" is somehow involved?  Grin

legally the supposed "mr mistake" should be able to recover their funds via a swift return to sender.

and on a tangent...

technically, is the address sent to confirmed part of the discovered assets of the gox bankruptcy holdings?
do those parties actually have access to over 200k btc?  have they moved them to another address for safe keeping to prevent someone with a copy of the private key from taking the funds? 

if so can is there a wallet address with the new withheld funds? i would love to see the held funds magically dissapear prior to any sort of liquidation return :-)

no btc will be acknowledged or returned

not going to happen or at least for several years. and then it will be the thing that happened back way when it was just the beginning that we all just let go because of all the underlying factors we can only talk about now.

my "2 sat"
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 250

Also, try send an email to [email protected]

If you have better advice for him besides "send a letter to Japan," please reply to him in the thread below.



Hey dont give the guy wrong directions...

"This email address is used only for the purpose of sending messages, and we are unable to confirm and respond to any replies to this email address."
legendary
Activity: 2492
Merit: 1473
LEALANA Bitcoin Grim Reaper
Good luck. That must be a sick feeling for the guy who did it.... Shocked
hero member
Activity: 574
Merit: 500
Ask yourself this:

How many people do you know (or have ever met in your entire life) who have half a million dollars to spend willy nilly.

How many people do you know (or have ever met in your entire life) who might 'give' half a million dollars to the 'wrong person'.

Come one people think - this is bs

The OP already signed a signature from the sending address after the fact.

Stop talking out of your bum.  Roll Eyes

Can you post a link to the signed sig? I might have missed that waldo...

[edit] after all there are THREE whole pages of bs to read...

Quote
Address:1P6iT6SJe4fZkKdzZBvMGoNj4KLnpSgNSp
Message:DJFC
Signature:HMxLfa1qAHn0oQsis0PT6Tt6osZmae7vHpb9pG8/BQOFd+hJRhuOOlIgCJJ1x/Gj5PB1FrqdRu35NJo5+daczkM=

From the original thread at reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/273vi2/if_you_just_received_800_bitcoin_out_of_the_blue/

Ouch - ok I'm a believer... but still...
legendary
Activity: 1153
Merit: 1000
He should be able to get it back from the bankruptcy trustee. It's a post-bankruptcy liability, not a per-bankruptcy one. Liabilities incurred by a company during a bankruptcy are handled differently (otherwise, they wouldn't be able to buy anything, even to shut down.)  But he'll need a lawyer in Japan.

This seems the most logical.

This address was the address MtGox created to fund his MtGox account. What he just did was fund his MtGox account post-bankruptcy. Since MtGox is not able to legally accept new deposits since they are not in operation anymore, any deposits they do receive should simply be funded.

I think the main issues for the OP are: 1) Getting the process for this started, this is essentially another headache for the trustees and they may not be sure how to handle it at first 2) working out any fees the trustee will charge. There will be some level of effort required to process and verify any refund, that won't be free....

In short, for half a million I would hire a lawyer in Japan ASAP. He probably will not get 100% back after everything, maybe 100% minus several tens of thousands of dollars...
hero member
Activity: 574
Merit: 500
Ask yourself this:

How many people do you know (or have ever met in your entire life) who have half a million dollars to spend willy nilly.

How many people do you know (or have ever met in your entire life) who might 'give' half a million dollars to the 'wrong person'.

Come one people think - this is bs

The OP already signed a signature from the sending address after the fact.

Stop talking out of your bum.  Roll Eyes

Can you post a link to the signed sig? I might have missed that waldo...

[edit] after all there are THREE whole pages of bs to read...
hero member
Activity: 574
Merit: 500
Ask yourself this:

How many people do you know (or have ever met in your entire life) who have half a million dollars to spend willy nilly.

How many people do you know (or have ever met in your entire life) who might 'give' half a million dollars to the 'wrong person'.

Come one people think - this is bs
hero member
Activity: 588
Merit: 500
Get ready for PrimeDice Sig Campaign!
I'm sure gox has access to all the wallets. Just send him his money back. Its not right stealing even more money
legendary
Activity: 1204
Merit: 1002
He should be able to get it back from the bankruptcy trustee. It's a post-bankruptcy liability, not a per-bankruptcy one. Liabilities incurred by a company during a bankruptcy are handled differently (otherwise, they wouldn't be able to buy anything, even to shut down.)  But he'll need a lawyer in Japan.
legendary
Activity: 812
Merit: 1002
Wow unreal. This isn't the old days where people just carelessly tossed out hard drives that contained thousands of btc. This is the present when each btc is worth someone's weekly wage. If I was moving half a million $ like that, I would quadruple check to make sure everything is lined up. So careless...

I truly hope he can recover this amount. Mt.Cock didn't need their pile of scammed coins to grow.
member
Activity: 88
Merit: 10
Honestly, for that amount of money I'd probably be flying out to Japan.

I first read this and wanted to give a big +1, but if you stop and think for second- this doesn't really solve or do anything. He really needs to get the legal part going first so he can have instruction on what to do.

I see it as an impulsive move to just fly out to Japan. He goes there, lands and is then in the position of "Ok, now what? I'm close to where MtGox is located." but that doesn't really solve anything.

A lot can be accomplished remotely, I'm sure when/if the time comes for him to fly out that will be a no brainer.

Impulsive, sure. But it might make a difference.

We know some of the old MtGox infrastructure is still in place. Coins move occassionally, and you can log in and check balances on the site.  What if there is a script out that that iterates over deposit addresses and moves coins to cold storage at an interval? As long as those coins stay where they are, it's pretty obvious that they're not MtGox's. Once they move to a cold wallet that's shared with other peoples' funds, I imagine things could get more interesting.

While it's unlikely, it's possible that there's an easy solution, but that it's time-limited.
legendary
Activity: 2114
Merit: 1040
A Great Time to Start Something!
Your best hope:
If they are not legally allowed to accept new payments from customers, then you might have a really strong case for a refund.

Whenever possible I lean towards optimistic views instead of negative, but you may have recently donated to the official "lawyers, courts and Marks living expenses fund." Please keep us updated if you are able to get a refund, I hope it goes well.
member
Activity: 79
Merit: 10
Man I am so sorry for you..

Following the adresses, I arrived at https://blockchain.info/pt/address/17Kv5tVFrJFL86bEaMgFgXWTdfnjci5Fb9

It looks like an old Gox adress, and you should probably keep tracking your coins until you recover them.


Also, try send an email to [email protected]




Also, this email from MtGox:


Dear MtGox customer,

 

On May 23, 2014, I, as the bankruptcy trustee and foreign representative of MtGox, Co., Ltd. (a/k/a MtGox KK), filed the Amended Verified Petition for Recognition and Chapter 15 Relief [Docket No. 126] (the “Amended Recognition Petition”) in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.

 

Please find attached a copy of the Notice of Recognition Hearing, which is scheduled for June 17, 2014 at 9:30 a.m. (prevailing Central U.S. Time), and will take place before the Honorable Stacey G.C. Jernigan, at the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Texas, 14th Floor, 1100 Commerce Street, Dallas, Texas 75252.

 

The attached Notice of Recognition Hearing also sets forth the requirements for filing any responses to the Amended Recognition Petition, which responses must be filed with the court and served on the parties specified in the notice on or before June 6, 2014 at 4:00 p.m. (prevailing Central U.S. Time).

 

Best regards,

 

MtGox Co., Ltd.

Bankruptcy Trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi


Since we plan to provide the information regarding the bankruptcy proceedings by posting it on the website hosted by the bankruptcy trustee (http://www.mtgox.com/), please check this website.



If you have better advice for him besides "send a letter to Japan," please reply to him in the thread below.

I suppose that someone losing 300 BTC on Gox and moving 800 BTC like it was spare change still controls a very large number of coins and/or fiat, so :

1. Get a good lawyer. One that knows how liquidations work in Japan.
2. If it works like it does in developed countries, then the liquidator representing the company is not allowed to accept any new payment or delivery from former partners after the liquidation starts.
3. Let your lawyer write to the liquidator and/or the Japanese court and demand the bitcoins to be sent back to you.

It will cost you between $10k and $100k and you have a 50% chance of recovering them.


Finally, I would follow his suggestion. I sincerely hope you recover your coins.

Best regards Sir














hero member
Activity: 1582
Merit: 502
I'm not buying it - you don't just send half a million dollars to any old address - I smell bs

Dude owns http://bitcoinbank.com/. Any questions?

I got a question: Who is Chadwick Miller?
legendary
Activity: 1789
Merit: 1008
Keep it dense, yeah?
Holy smokes, that's so careless! You would make damn sure that you still had access to any wallet that you were sending to providing that it is one that you ever had access to.

I feel bad for him, but at the same time I'm flabbergasted that it could even occur. Good luck getting them back though!
sr. member
Activity: 474
Merit: 285
Brave New World
Can't believe someone just got goxed - has been so long! :0
hero member
Activity: 574
Merit: 500
I'm not buying it - you don't just send half a million dollars to any old address - I smell bs

Dude owns http://bitcoinbank.com/. Any questions?

There's not a great deal happening on that website that I can see - just one big image with a repeat-x...

Should I be impressed or were you being sarcastic?
full member
Activity: 154
Merit: 100
Mark you sure that's not you? Cool
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
I'm not buying it - you don't just send half a million dollars to any old address - I smell bs

Dude owns http://bitcoinbank.com/. Any questions?
legendary
Activity: 826
Merit: 1002
amarha
Honestly, for that amount of money I'd probably be flying out to Japan. First thing I would do is get a lawyer there and begin contacting the bankruptcy trustee to see if we could get this resolved as soon as possible.

Hell if I were in Japan I'd try to do inquiring on your behalf but I'm a few hours flight away.

At least with this all hope is not lost. Unlike other times when people lose their wallets or send money to unknown addresses.
newbie
Activity: 10
Merit: 0
newbie
Activity: 10
Merit: 0
I have signed the addresses.

I accidentally used the wrong address because this address was on top alphabetically from all the addresses I had ever sent to, I accidentally copied this address instead of my own address.
legendary
Activity: 1428
Merit: 1000
https://www.bitworks.io
I suspect you can get some traction with the rep. for Mt. Gox on this given the amount and situation at hand however I would start by signing the addresses you sent from so it's clear who controls them as a way to show proof you own the addresses at hand..

In addition a very good story on how you accidentally sent the coins to the wrong account, I would compare it to the situation when someone accidentally transfer $500,000 to the wrong international account.. Well that is extremely rare but there is at least a frame of reference for how to handle that type of situation including ownership of funds, etc..

I have a Lawyer that handles these types of things but a chain of custody (signing the addresses, etc.) would need to be established before kicking the door open.. While others assume a Lawyer means threats that isn't the job of your Lawyer from the onset, at least it isn't with respect to this issue.
newbie
Activity: 20
Merit: 0
Well it happened and I'm sorry.

Is there any tech contact at Mt. Gox these days?

Please tell us why you sent so much and who did you think you were sending to?
I read this thread and part on Reddit and didn't see the answer (maybe I missed it) ...Sorry about your loss.

@DJFC
I was about to ask a similar question. I don't really think the amount is relevant though. What I mainly wonder about is: how precisely did you end up sending it to that address? If you had not sent anything there for a year, then how did you end up using that specific address? Did you use something like an address book and you clicked the wrong one, or did your wallet get compromised, or ..?

Note that I am asking this because I am sincerely interested in understanding the situation in detail. And I think it can be helpful to everyone here to understand what went wrong, in an effort to try and prevent the same mistake happening again.

In either case: I hope you manage to recover the funds.
legendary
Activity: 1148
Merit: 1014
In Satoshi I Trust
I don't understand why you wouldn't double, triple or quadruple check before you sent that amount of money. I think I usually check everything multiple times before I send any amount of bitcoin.

yeah normal people would do that....maybe he holds 5000 BTC and dont care  Lips sealed


ask Mark if he can sent it back. (sry ironic)
legendary
Activity: 2114
Merit: 1040
A Great Time to Start Something!
Well it happened and I'm sorry.

Is there any tech contact at Mt. Gox these days?

Please tell us why you sent so much and who did you think you were sending to?
I read this thread and part on Reddit and didn't see the answer (maybe I missed it) ...Sorry about your loss.
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 500
Nope..
Can you not attempt to log in to your Mt. Gox account?

https://www.mtgox.com/

Hopefully you can remember your old credentials.

Hope this helps.
full member
Activity: 208
Merit: 100
Risk-hedging platform for cryptocurrency investors
Well it happened and I'm sorry.

Is there any tech contact at Mt. Gox these days?

Since MtGox has started bankruptcy proceedings, all contacts have to go through the representative assigned to MtGox by the Japanese bankruptcy couirt. The regular MtGox employees no longer have any control over what goes on there. You should be able to find contact information on the MtGox homepage in one of the press releases.

https://www.mtgox.com/img/pdf/20140521_announce.pdf

Bankruptcy trustee
Attorney-at-law Nobuaki Kobayashi
Shibuya 2-11-5, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
MtGox Co., Ltd. bankruptcy trustee office
Tel +81-3-4588-3922
hero member
Activity: 728
Merit: 500
Well it happened and I'm sorry.

Is there any tech contact at Mt. Gox these days?

Since MtGox has started bankruptcy proceedings, all contacts have to go through the representative assigned to MtGox by the Japanese bankruptcy couirt. The regular MtGox employees no longer have any control over what goes on there. You should be able to find contact information on the MtGox homepage in one of the press releases.
legendary
Activity: 3682
Merit: 1580
If you have better advice for him besides "send a letter to Japan," please reply to him in the thread below.

I suppose that someone losing 300 BTC on Gox and moving 800 BTC like it was spare change still controls a very large number of coins and/or fiat, so :

1. Get a good lawyer. One that knows how liquidations work in Japan.
2. If it works like it does in developed countries, then the liquidator representing the company is not allowed to accept any new payment or delivery from former partners after the liquidation starts.
3. Let your lawyer write to the liquidator and/or the Japanese court and demand the bitcoins to be sent back to you.

It will cost you between $10k and $100k and you have a 50% chance of recovering them.

Japan is a developed country so I don't know why you are implying otherwise in 2. I also don't see how it would cost so much just to get a lawyer to write a letter.
newbie
Activity: 10
Merit: 0
Well it happened and I'm sorry.

Is there any tech contact at Mt. Gox these days?
full member
Activity: 208
Merit: 100
Risk-hedging platform for cryptocurrency investors
@DJFC: why did you send the coins via Coinbase?

No reason to add insult to injury- I'm sure he's hurting enough with the feeling of losing half a milli.

With that said, getting info here for initial guidance is good but you're going to need some type of legal assistance in this, no matter what.

Didn't mean to insult anybody, just asking a totally sane question. He's into bitcoin since at least 2010, so I guess he kinda knows how things work in the bitcoin world. I'm totally fine with having 1-10 BTC in an online wallet, but 800?
hero member
Activity: 574
Merit: 500
I'm not buying it - you don't just send half a million dollars to any old address - I smell bs
full member
Activity: 208
Merit: 100
Risk-hedging platform for cryptocurrency investors
@DJFC: why did you send the coins via Coinbase?
full member
Activity: 392
Merit: 116
Worlds Simplest Cryptocurrency Wallet
Legally speaking, it is not possible to force someone to send back Bitcoins (assuming you are able to determine who controls the recipient key). Am I right?

Personally, I would be careful about using lawyers and such and you definitely don't want to start your communications with a threat.
sr. member
Activity: 359
Merit: 250
Can the bloggers and journalists on this board please publish articles about this incident?

The man is much more likely to get his coins back once there is public awareness and the guys in charge at gox know that people are watching how they handle this situation!
hero member
Activity: 700
Merit: 500
Ouch sick story, good luck getting your coins back!
newbie
Activity: 10
Merit: 0
Before I engage the lawyer, is there a way to confirm that this definitely was a Mt. Gox address... I was never able to verify that myself.
newbie
Activity: 10
Merit: 0
Hi,

That's me.
 

Any help is appreciated, and I will be generous with rewards.


-DJFC
global moderator
Activity: 3990
Merit: 2717
Join the world-leading crypto sportsbook NOW!
I don't understand why you wouldn't double, triple or quadruple check before you sent that amount of money. I think I usually check everything multiple times before I send any amount of bitcoin.
full member
Activity: 150
Merit: 100
BTC Reward offered BTC

He writes:

I messed up big time. I sent this address 800 bitcoin:
113MmkyjjH6zS9VMvbwrhBNoMe6upzdvNC
https://blockchain.info/address/113MmkyjjH6zS9VMvbwrhBNoMe6upzdvNC
I had previously sent this address 300 bitcoin a year ago, and for the life of me I cannot remember what that was!
Any and all help appreciated.

The answer comes:

Mystery solved: this is a MtGox address. You sent 300 to it one year ago
ae1332a4-f3c0-4805-89d4-396387e7a96e,8c71169c-c0b2-46a8-97c8-8940cf2bb89a,"2013-04-16 18:37:04",deposit,300
So. I guess my goxcoins just became 800/202000 = 0.4% more worth. Thanks buddy.
Jokes aside this clearly sucks. I would recommend that you write a PHYSICAL letter and send it off to Japan.

If you have better advice for him besides "send a letter to Japan," please reply to him in the thread below.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/273vi2/if_you_just_received_800_bitcoin_out_of_the_blue/

Thanks!
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