As per the South Korean information company Yonhap, the prosecutors in South Korea are searching for 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 entails promoting Bithumb’s BXA tokens as a part of Singapore-based BK Group’s bid to purchase the crypto change in 2018. As a part of the acquisition course of, Lee presold BXA tokens value $25 million to BK Group. These cash have been additionally bought to traders for round $45 million.
Bithumb, then again, didn’t checklist BXA, which reportedly resulted in massive losses for traders. These traders filed a fraud lawsuit in opposition to 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 be accused of the alleged fraud, however he’s reportedly not underneath police investigation. The summons follows two current police raids on Bithumb.
Kim’s shares in Bithumb are additionally mentioned 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 injury may be very massive, and the injury is very nice for atypical coin traders,” mentioned the prosecution at a listening to earlier than the Seoul Central District Court docket.
Lee’s protection, then again, 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 prison prosecution for his position within the BXA token sale debacle.
The court docket will maintain its sentencing listening to on 20 December.
This text first appeared on AMBCrypto
Right here’s How To Keep Up To Date On Crypto With CRU Information Desk!
For the most effective exchanges, try our high change information.
Join our bi-weekly e-newsletter for information and unique evaluation.
Follow CRU News Desk on Twitter for our newest articles and Twitter unique threads.
Find out about Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a lot extra on the CryptosRus Academy.
Keep updated with George on Tik Tok, Instagram, and his model new clips channel.