Prosecutors in South Korea are looking into transactions involving a certain person or organization that moved the price of a currency to make a profit, and they claimed they will also look into pertinent transactions on other exchanges.
- On Thursday, a raid was conducted on the Bithumb headquarters as part of a probe into price manipulation of a coin offered on the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange.
- A tax probe involving the cryptocurrency business has occurred in South Korea twice.
- The Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges against three Bithumb officials for embezzlement, breach of trust, and fraudulent illegal transactions.
Raid on Bithumb
According to Yonhap, a raid on the Bithumb headquarters took place on Thursday as part of an inquiry into price manipulation of a coin traded on the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. No specific currency was mentioned.
According to prosecutors, they are looking into transactions that involved a specific person or organization manipulating the coin’s price to profit. According to the report, they intend to look into transaction information at other exchanges where the coin is listed. According to a representative of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office, “This is a search and seizure to secure the transaction data of a single coin, and it has nothing to do with Bithumb.”
The raid occurred at the same time that Bithumb is under investigation by South Korea’s tax officials, who are looking into possible tax evasion through local and foreign transactions on the exchange and its affiliates. A tax probe into the cryptocurrency business has occurred in South Korea twice. Even though the investigation determined that Bithumb Korea was not guilty of tax evasion, the company was still hit with a multi-million dollar payment for past taxes in 2018.
Recently, a case involving Lee Jung-Hoon, the former chairman of Bithumb Holdings, that resulted in his acquittal on accusations of defrauding $100 million grabbed headlines. In connection with an embezzlement case involving linked companies, South Korean authorities have also questioned Kang Jong-hyun, another former chairman of Bithumb, and his younger sister Kang Ji-yeon, according to Yonhap.
Local News Report
According to a Korean news outlet on Wednesday, Kang Jong-Hyun, the CEO and owner of the bitcoin exchange Bithumb, is wanted by South Korean authorities. The CEOs of two publicly traded Bithumb affiliates, Inbiogen and Bucket Studio, and Kang and two other executives, including his younger sister Kang Ji-Yeon, was charged with embezzlement, breach of trust, and fraudulent, illegal activities, according to local news.
The South Korea National Tax Service investigates alleged tax evasion at Bithumb and its affiliates. This was revealed earlier this month. Separate from the tax evasion investigation, the inquiry into Kang and the other executives’ conduct is focused on charges that they stole money from the business and banded together to manipulate stock prices.
Kang and his sister aren’t the only Bithumb executives in trouble over alleged misbehavior in one of Korea’s remaining five exchanges. On January 3, claims that Lee Jung-Hoon, a former chairman of Bithumb, had defrauded the exchange of $100 million were dropped against him.
After being labeled a suspect in prosecutors’ probe into the alleged theft and stock manipulation, Park Mo, Bithumb’s top shareholder, was reportedly discovered dead outside his South Korean house in December. He committed suicide, according to local media.
Conclusion
Following an industry crackdown in 2021 that saw almost 70 domestic exchanges close due to noncompliance with regulatory standards, Bithumb is one of five Korean cryptocurrency exchanges still operating.
