Report: Korean Authorities Arrested Coinone Leaders for Bribery
Several executives at Coinone could go to prison if they are found to have taken bribes to add digital currencies to the platform.
Kim Ji-Sook, the Chief Judge of the Seoul Southern District Court, is said to have issued an arrest warrant for Kim Mo, the leader of Coinone’s listing team, as well as for listing broker Hwang Mo and other exchange executives.
Prosecutors said that they had been paid billions of won to list certain cryptocurrencies on the platform.
Drama Continues in South Korea
Local media said that the South Korean government arrested a number of Coinone employees (one of the leading crypto exchanges in the country). Kim Mo, who was in charge of the company’s listing team, and Hwang Mo were both named as suspects (a listing broker).
The magistrates said that Kim broke the Concealment of Criminal Proceeds Control Act and broke trust by taking a bribe of one billion won (almost $760,000) from Hwang to list digital currencies like Pica Coin on the platform. He is said to have admitted getting the money.
Hwang, on the other hand, was charged with breaking trust. He gave Kim and other Coinone executives a bribe of about $1.5 million, or 2 billion won, in total.
The cryptocurrency exchange is one of the largest in the country in East Asia. Local regulators said that South Korean platforms would have to follow stricter rules starting in 2021, and Coinone was one of the few to have finished registering with the government.
This week, the country was in the news for another reason: hackers broke into the crypto platform GDAC. Cybercriminals broke through its security and stole over $13 million worth of digital currencies (23% of its total custodial assets).
GDAC had to act quickly, so it stopped deposits and withdrawals. It also told law enforcement about the problem and asked other businesses for help with the disturbing situation.
Saga of Do Kwon
After the South Korean Co-Founder of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, allegedly went on the run after the collapse of LUNA/UST, the government seems much more determined to fight crime in the cryptocurrency sector.
Several failed investors and agencies said that the 31-year-old developer was the main person to blame for the bad thing that happened and that he should be punished for his actions. But he didn’t want to help, so he started hiding in different places around the world. Dubai, Singapore, Russia, and Mauritius were some of the places he could have gone.
South Korea’s Ministry of Justice and Interpol’s decision to join the search for Kwon seemed to have no effect, and for months no one knew where he was.
In December of last year, some sources said that he might be hiding in the Balkan country of Serbia. In March, Kwon was finally caught at the airport in Podgorica, which is the capital of Montenegro and a western neighbor of Serbia.
After he was arrested, American prosecutors quickly charged him with securities fraud, commodities fraud, and conspiracy.
It’s still not clear if Kwon will face justice in his own country or in the U.S. But since he was arrested in Montenegro, their law says he has to spend at least 30 days in a local jail.
