I think one should ignore the fact that this was bitcoins (rather than any other good) being "lost" or "stolen" or whatever it is that happened. If fraud was c

I think one should ignore the fact that this was bitcoins (rather than any other good) being "lost" or "stolen" or whatever it is that happened. If fraud was committed...i.e., if customers were lied to, if markets were manipulated in order to continue the deception, if money from new customers was used to shore up the illusion that the money from old customers was still around, etc. that's fraud, regardless of whether it had bitcoin involved or not (there were also vast sums of USD involved, nobody is making a big deal out of that). I'm not saying I know that's what happened. I'm saying that it should not be a question of whether we want bitcoin entrepreneurs to go to jail. That's not the question here. The question is, did Karpeles and his company commit fraud? "The most persuasive argument for jailtime seems to be that if he's not penalized, then others may attempt to orchestrate similar disasters." The most persuasive argument, to me, would be "Karpeles committed fraud to the tune of millions of dollars". If that's what he did, he should go to jail. If it's an honest loss, and customers were not mislead, and a ponzie scheme didn't happen, then, yeah, I guess we can talk about what should happen to a monumentally incompetent business man. I think it will be interesting to see how much differently a bitcoin "bank" is treated than a traditional big bank. The banksters committed fraud in the trillions during the mortgage crisis, and not a one will see jail time...or much of anything really. Some even still have their jobs and got bonuses.