Police in South Korea have arrested 215 people suspected of the country’s largest crypto fraud to date. Local media report that 15,304 people were defrauded of a total of 325.6 billion Korean won (equivalent to 219.5 million euros). A South Korean financial influencer with a YouTube channel that has 620,000 subscribers promised people high profits but sold them cryptocurrencies, some of which were worthless. Their prices were supposedly driven up by a network he set up.
Anzeige
The South Korean news agency Yonhap reports that 12 of the 215 suspects arrested are still in custody. These include the suspected leader of the fraud ring, the middle-aged head of an investment advisory firm. This man, referred to only as “Person A”, had previously fled to Australia but has now been found and arrested.
The man had got into trouble in 2020 when clients demanded refunds after unsuccessful investment recommendations. He then set up an extensive network of front companies to market and sell cryptocurrencies from December 2021 to March 2023. The man himself issued six of the 28 cryptocoins on offer, the value of which was manipulated by his network. According to the police, the other cryptocurrencies were hardly known in South Korea and had a low value.
Up to 808,000 euros per victim
The fraudsters had access to 9 million telephone numbers that the man had collected through his YouTube channel and advertising. This was used to find new fraud victims, some of whom were middle-aged or older, who were offered the cryptocurrencies. The fraudsters even pretended to be part of the South Korean Financial Supervisory Authority. The victims were also advised to sell assets such as condominiums in order to invest in the cryptocurrencies. The fraudsters swindled up to 808,000 euros from individual victims.
When the head of the fraud ring was arrested, 22 bitcoins were seized, currently worth 1.87 million euros. In addition, the equivalent of 32.2 million euros was confiscated from the bogus companies and accounts that had been taken in as a result of the crypto fraud. Due to the recent increase in the number of investment fraud incidents, South Korea increased the penalties for such cases at the beginning of this year. The fraudsters now even face a life sentence.
Read also
(fds)