Three have sentenced them to prison by a South Korean court for organising an investment scheme that fraudulently 610 million Korean victims (approximately $416,000).
Busan District Court Criminal Division 6 has been found guilty of violating the law on aggravated punishment for certain economic crimes.
Busan crypto fraudsters deceived investors with false promises
The three men made illegal crypto investments in a Busan building in June 2019, “deceiving investors by committing to select and trade around 1,000 quality coins (cryptocurrencies) from around the world.
Investment fraudsters used their own trading algorithms that they claimed to benefit from exploiting market fluctuations. There was no such algorithm, and the funds raised were diverted for personal spending. In total, they scam investors 610 million won scams.
The court sentenced the ring leader to four and a half years. The other two who remained unknown for legal reasons received three and a half years, one in two years and six months.
While making the verdict, the judge above said that the defendant exploited the public’s interest in cryptocurrency investment opportunities to deceive and deceive innocent investors.
According to the judge, that type of behavior erodes trust in the financial system and deserves severe punishment.
The incident underscores the growing scrutiny of code-related crimes by South Korean authorities. The country has introduced stricter regulations and surveillance over the past few years to protect investors and maintain market integrity.
Legal experts say the verdict sends the message to criminals that fraud is a serious crime in the crypto world.
South Korea’s Crypto Boom will more strongly crack down on fraud
Recent data submitted to Reconstruction South Korea’s Reconstruction Party’s Rep. Cha Kyung found that South Korea’s cryptocurrency investors reached 1,629 million in February.
This figure represents almost 32% of the country’s population. Data compiled from the top five domestic virtual asset exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax) accounts show consistent growth throughout 2024.
The number of crypto investors first exceeded 14 million in March 2024. Following Donald Trump’s election as US president in November, another 500,000 people entered the market, totaling over 15 million.
in Recent reports, 20% of Korean civil servants who submitted their asset declarations reported they own cryptocurrency. Of the 2,047 officials who filed the declaration, 411 have directly disclosed their cryptocurrency holdings or investments.
As virtual asset-related criminal methods became more refined, intelligent and international, it became necessary to establish effective crime response systems through close cooperation with related organizations.
Last month, the Southern District Attorney’s Office established a formal joint investigation unit that exclusively investigates crypto-related crimes and fraud cases.
According to Report According to Aju News, the department was named the Joint Investigation Unit or JIU, run by the office of Southern District Attorneys of Seoul for virtual asset crimes.
The unit includes 35 full-time employees with experience dealing with Korean crypto crime, primarily prosecutors of the Financial Services Commission, as well as financial regulators and financial supervision services. It will be led by the Chief Prosecutor and two deputy chiefs.
The body was originally formed as a temporary task force in 2023 to handle the spikes in crypto-related fraud cases. However, with the rise of crypto adoptions in the country, with the rise of domestic crypto adoptions, the District Attorney’s Office has decided to turn the task force into a formal joint investigation unit.
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