On Tuesday, a bankruptcy court judge from the Northern District of Texas ruled that Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles must show up for a deposition in Dallas on April 17 if he wants to move ahead with Chapter 15 bankruptcy proceedings in the US.

Karpeles filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo in late February after Mt. Gox, which was once the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, reportedly lost about 750,000 customer bitcoins and 100,000 of the company’s own reserves. On March 9, Karpeles filed in the Dallas court to have Mt. Gox's bankruptcy recognized in the United States.

Yesterday, Judge Stacey Jernigan reportedly bristled at Karpeles' attorneys’ attempt to excuse the CEO from appearing in the US, suggesting that Karpeles’ reluctance to appear was in order to avoid being served additional legal papers upon arrival in the US. In mid-March in Illinois, Mt. Gox depositors Gregory Greene and Joseph Lack launched a class-action suit against Mt. Gox, Karpeles, and a host of related companies and Mt. Gox executives. "If he avails himself of this court, my God, he is going to get himself over here,” Jernigan said to the court yesterday, according to Reuters.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the judge “rejected Mt. Gox lawyers’ offer to produce a representative to answer questions about the exchange without promising it would be Karpeles, as well as a proposal he travel only as far as Taipei.”

The judge did, however, order that the deposition only stick to a narrow line of questioning, precluding the attorneys of Mt. Gox's creditors from digging too deep into the Bitcoin exchange's affairs. "Jernigan limited the deposition questioning of Karpeles to issues pertaining to whether the court should grant permanent bankruptcy protection to Mt. Gox,” Reuters noted.

Judge Jernigan also pushed the hearing to determine whether the company is eligible for permanent bankruptcy protection back from April 1 to May 20.

Ars spoke to Steven Woodrow, an attorney for Greene in the class-action case, over the phone on Wednesday morning. “I think it’s a great decision. We’re very happy with it... His lawyers fought incredibly hard to keep him from coming to the United States, ” Woodrow said, adding that he and his client were of the opinion that Karpeles ought to show up in a US court to reap the benefits of bankruptcy protection in the US.

”You shouldn’t be allowed to just hide behind a website or to hide out in Japan,” Woodrow said.

Ars contacted Baker & McKenzie, the law firm representing Karpeles and Mt. Gox, but did not receive a response. This article will be updated if they choose to comment.