The seemingly never ending saga of failed bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox may finally be entering its final act.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Karpeles Tuesday pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzlement and data manipulation before the Tokyo District Court Tuesday. He stands accused of transferring 341 million yen ($3 million) from a Mt. Gox account holding customer funds to an account in his name between September and December 2013.

Some of those funds were alleged to have been used to acquire the services of prostitutes. In addition to his predilection for prostitutes, Karpeles, 32, is also alleged to have used the funds to acquire a bed valued at $48,000, which police say was intended for personal use. Karpeles’ lawyer denied the allegation at the time, saying instead that the “ bed was purchased as interior decoration for his guesthouse, both of which were meant as marketing tools to promote the use of bitcoins.”

Interestingly, lawyers representing Karpeles are not denying that he transferred funds from the company but are instead arguing that the transfer itself was legal and was not a case of embezzlement.

“I swear to God I am not guilty,” Karpeles told the court in Japanese according to The Japan Times. “I offer my sincere apology for causing inconvenience to many clients with the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox,” he added. He also claimed that the alleged data manipulation was part of Mt. Gox’s regular business operations and that the money he spent did not belong to his clients.

Karpeles also again claimed that Mt. Gox was hacked, despite ample evidence showing that it was not, telling the court that “the main reason for the bitcoins’ disappearance was an external hacking attack.”

Coming into the court case, Karpeles had been arrested twice in 2015, the first time on a charge of fraudulently producing and using private electromagnetic records and a second time in relation to the embezzlement charge on which he is currently standing trial. Karpeles was released on bail pending the trial in July 2016 after making a payment of 10 million yen ($94,500).

Mt. Gox at its peak accounted for approximately 80 percent of all global bitcoin trading before its collapse in February 2014. The scandal surrounding Mt Gox’s collapse caused massive ripples in the bitcoin community, with the price of the cryptocurrency plunging at the time due to the uncertainty its closure caused.

Fast forward three years and Mt. Gox is now more considered a historical footnote in bitcoin history. The price of bitcoin continues to trade a near-record highs at 20 to 25 times multiples at what it was valued at during the high of Mt. Gox’s ascendancy.

Photo: Mark Karpeles/social media