A South Korean CEO has been sentenced to 5 years in jail for “misappropriating” $2.4m value of Ethereum (ETH) from a companion firm.
Per the media outlet Delight, the 43-year-old man, recognized solely by his surname (Chae), is the top of a “advertising company” that offers with crypto funds.
A department of the Seoul Northern District Courtroom heard that the corporate labored with a telecoms and broadcasting agency that’s energetic within the blockchain house.
The telecoms agency holds a patent for a brand new type of blockchain-powered cell communication useful resource sharing. It launched a “reverse” preliminary coin providing (ICO) through the advertising firm.
The reverse ICO raised some ETH 38,099 from traders, and the funds had been held underneath the administration of Chae’s firm.
Man ‘Made Dozens of Unauthorized ETH Transfers
However, the courtroom heard, in October 2018, Chae started “arbitrarily” transferring a few of these ETH funds to accounts held by one other firm he owned. He started with a sum of 300 ETH, however finally transferred “a complete of ETH 21,245.99” over the course of “dozens of transactions.”
The prosecution additionally accused Chae of buying and selling among the cash for fiat, and transferring them to wallets held in his spouse’s identify. However the decide rejected these calls.
The decide additionally rejected the cell communication firm’s appeals for compensation. The decide claimed that in sure cases, it was unrealistic to consider that Chae had acted alone and with out the cell communication firm’s information.
Regardless, the decide did discover Chae responsible of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Particular Financial Crimes. This piece of laws was amended to include crypto clauses again in 2020.
Final 12 months, a courtroom sentenced a fraudster who duped victims out of round $1.7 million value of Bitcoin (BTC), and ETH to five years in jail. The legal claimed to have created a blockchain-powered platform for webtoons, web-based cartoon strips that take pleasure in huge reputation in South Korea.
And in 2020, police shut down a fraudulent “Ethereum wallet”-themed multi-level marketing-type project. The venture’s masterminds raised $44.5 million from round 3,000 victims.
