A South Korean court has sentenced an individual, identified as “A” for legal reasons, to four years in prison for their involvement in a fraudulent cryptocurrency exchange scheme. The court decision was made by Judge Kim Jae-yoon of the Changwon District Court, following a conviction for fraud.
The person in their 30s, referred to as “A,” collaborated with a group of individuals described as “gang members” in executing the fraudulent project. A key aspect of A’s role was to provide the gang with counterfeit bank documents, which were obtained using stolen identity information.
The court learned that A supplied the gang with fraudulent bankbooks bearing the names of unsuspecting third parties, along with official public certificate documentation and one-time passwords (OTPs) associated with corporate accounts. These illicit documents were instrumental in the gang’s operation of a sham cryptocurrency exchange that successfully deceived citizens into investing more than $112,000 in the platform.
The gang members, acting as fake middle managers of their fraudulent cryptocurrency exchange, specifically targeted victims who had previously experienced losses in stock investments.
S Korean Crypto Scammers ‘Targeted Stock Market Traders Who’d Made Losses’
The fraudulent exchange representatives lured investors by promising them a chance to recover their previous financial losses through participation in a recovery program. Investors were informed that by utilizing tokens within the platform, they could reclaim their past losses. Unfortunately, the court uncovered that the tokens traded on the platform ultimately had no actual value or substance.
The utilization of illegal bank documents by the gang gave their deceptive project a semblance of credibility, as explained by the prosecutors.
During the sentencing, the judge emphasized the severity of A’s culpability, noting that the individual played a pivotal role in orchestrating the scam. Judge Kim remarked:
“The extent of the damages caused is significant, and [A] does not appear to genuinely regret these crimes.”
In unrelated news earlier this month, law enforcement successfully concluded a 16-month-long manhunt for a civil servant named Choi, who allegedly embezzled approximately $3.5 million from a nursing fund. It is believed that Choi converted the stolen funds into cryptocurrency before fleeing the country to reside in a luxurious resort in the Philippines.
