TOKYO (AP) — Mark Karpeles, who headed Mt. Gox, a Japan-based bitcoin exchange that went bankrupt after a massive hacking, is appealing his conviction on charges of manipulating electronic data.

Karpeles' lawyer Nobuyasu Ogata said Friday his client had merely tried to reduce the risks for Mt. Gox users.

The Tokyo District Court cleared Karpeles earlier this month of embezzlement and breach of trust charges, handing him a suspended sentence, meaning he wouldn't have to serve jail time.

But he was found guilty of the dubious data charges.

Prosecutors had demanded 10 years in prison.

Karpeles, a 33-year-old Frenchman and longtime resident of Japan, was arrested in August 2015.

He has insisted from the start that he is innocent.

His case, coming when cryptocurrencies were still relatively new, drew global attention.