Cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb ex-chair could face jail term, here’s why

As per the South Korean information company Yonhap, the prosecutors in South Korea are in search of Lee Jung-hoon, the previous head of the cryptocurrency buying and selling firm Bithumb, to serve as much as eight years in jail for alleged fraud.

This fraud case includes selling Bithumb’s BXA tokens as a part of Singapore-based BK Group’s bid to purchase the crypto trade in 2018. As a part of the acquisition course of, Lee presold BXA tokens price $25 million to BK Group. These cash had been additionally offered to traders for round $45 million.

Bithumb, however, didn’t listing BXA, which reportedly resulted in giant losses for traders. These traders filed a fraud lawsuit towards Lee and Kim Mo, the chairman of the BK Group.

Beforehand, South Korea’s investigation company dominated that Kim didn’t have a case to reply. Investigators determined that Kim was simply as a lot of a sufferer because the others.

Kim Byung-Gun, the group’s chairman, can also be accused of the alleged fraud, however he’s reportedly not underneath police investigation. The summons follows two latest police raids on Bithumb.

Kim’s shares in Bithumb are additionally stated to have been seized by the Seoul Central District Court docket on Wednesday. The seizure was reportedly overseen by the accounting agency Samjong KPMG.

Sentence out by mid-December

Authorities are requesting that Lee be convicted of fraud underneath the nation’s Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Particular Financial Crimes. “The quantity of harm could be very giant, and the injury is very nice for abnormal coin traders,” stated the prosecution at a listening to earlier than the Seoul Central District Court docket.

Lee’s protection, however, claimed that the token sale adopted a typical inventory sale contract. The protection additionally claimed that BK Group’s Kim was trying to keep away from legal prosecution for his function within the BXA token sale debacle.

The court docket will maintain its sentencing listening to on 20 December.