South Korea court has announced a jail sentence for former Bithumb head and his ally. According to the official announcement made on December 28th, a well-known professional golfer and the former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb was imprisoned by a South Korean court for bribery and trying to influence the price of altcoins.
The move comes against the backdrop of South Korean authorities being on a strict watch for any illegal activities in the crypto sector. At present South Korea is undergoing a rise in crypto adoption but at the same time, official regulators and authorities have been trying to curb all and any illicit activities in the sector.
Former CEO of Bithumb Faces Jail Time
According to local media reports, Lee Sang-jun, the former CEO of Bithumb, received a two-year prison sentence for directing his employees to list an unidentified altcoin.
Ahn Sung-hyun, a former professional golfer, misused several billion won in cash from Lee Sang-jun, the former CEO of Bithumb Holdings, and was sentenced to prison in the first trial. Sang-jun is accused of receiving luxury watches and other items in exchange for listing virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) on an exchange.
After being tried on allegations of embezzlement and other offenses, former CEO Lee was given a two-year prison sentence and a 52,005,000 won fine. On the other hand, Ahn received a 4-year, 6-month prison sentence after being found guilty of breaching the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes (fraud) in connection with former CEO Lee.
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South Korea Keeps Strict Watch Over Crypto Sector
South Korea has often vowed to maintain a close eye on cryptocurrency theft. Cryptocurrency frauds have become much more common in South Korea. Authorities have taken efforts to halt this trend because it has unfortunately caused many people to lose millions of dollars.
The illegal cryptocurrency trade is causing an increase in illicit money flow in South Korea at the moment. Despite the country’s efforts to closely monitor these activities, frauds, unlawful activity, and cryptocurrency scams, the number of scams and hacks has been rising.
Just previously, former Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-guk was ordered spend six months in prison for lying about his assets and hiding millions in bitcoin holdings during 2021 and 2022 financial declarations. The case demonstrates South Korea’s changing yet divisive stance on bitcoin legislation.
The strict watch does not limit to citizens of the nation but overseas exploiters as well. A good example of this was the country’s most recent sanctions against 15 members of North Korean IT companies and one affiliated company due to the theft of digital information and cryptocurrency.
The sanctioned agents allegedly exploited foreign exchange-earning activities abroad to get funds for North Korea’s nuclear missile development program and the DPRK’s Munitions Industry Department.
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