By Mark Hunter
15 hours agoTue Dec 31 2024 10:04:51
Checking out Time: 2 minutes
- Previous Bithumb CEO Lee Sang-jun has actually been sentenced to 2 years in jail for accepting kickbacks to list cryptocurrencies on the exchange
- Expert golf enthusiast Ahn Sung-hyun got a four-and-a-half-year jail term for his function in the plan
- The listings pumped up the rate of numerous altcoins on other exchanges, permitting creators to benefit
A South Korean court has actually sentenced previous Bithumb CEO Lee Sang-jun to 2 years in jail for accepting allurements to list particular cryptocurrencies on the exchange, leading to market control. Lee belonged to a trio that assisted improve the worth of altcoins for monetary gain in addition to accepting cash for listings. Expert golf player Ahn Sung-hyun got a four-and-a-half-year sentence, while entrepreneur Kang Jong-hyun was sentenced to one and a half years for their function in the plan.
Bribery and Market Manipulation
The Seoul Southern District Court discovered that Lee Sang-jun accepted roughly 3 billion won (around $2 million) in money, in addition to high-end products such as high-end watches and designer bags, in exchange for noting specific altcoins on Bithumb. This practice synthetically pumped up the rates of these cryptocurrencies on other exchanges, benefiting their promoters and creators, who offered into the pumps.
Golf player Ahn functioned as an intermediary in the plan, getting the allurements from Kang and passing them to Lee. The court slammed Ahn’s actions as “abhorrent,” keeping in mind that he embezzled a substantial part of the allurements for individual financial investments. Kang, a reclusive entrepreneur and close partner of both Lee and Ahn, was likewise linked in offering the kickbacks and got a one-and-a-half-year jail sentence.
More Bad News for Bithumb
This sentencing of its previous CEO is the current in a variety of legal difficulties including Bithumb executives. In 2021, previous chairman Lee Jung-hoon was charged with scams associated to an unsuccessful takeover of the business, although he was later on acquitted. In addition, Kang, acknowledged as the de facto owner of Bithumb, was jailed in February 2023 for controling stock costs of Bithumb affiliates and abusing business funds.
Bithumb will hope that it can put these problems behind it and begin 2025 with a cleaner slate.
