• South Korean authorities have arrested several staff members of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinone for criminal acts and breach of trust.
• The arrests were issued by Seoul Southern District Court Chief Judge Kim Ji-Sook, who claimed that the employees had received billions in bribes to list particular cryptocurrencies on their platform.
• One of these coins, “Furever Coin” is also suspected to be linked to a possible murder case in South Korea.
Coinone Arrests
South Korean authorities have taken several staff members of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinone into custody for breach of trust and other criminal acts. Warrants were issued by Seoul Southern District Court Chief Judge Kim Ji-Sook who deemed it necessary to detain them as they could potentially escape.
Bribery Allegations
Prosecutors claim that the executives in question received billions to list certain cryptocurrencies on their platform. According to investigations, the head of Coinone’s listing division, Kim Mo, violated the Concealment of Criminal Proceeds Act and was accused of breach of trust alongside another individual, Hwang Mo. It is believed that Hwang paid 2 billion won ($1.5 million) as bribes for Kim listing specific digital assets on Coinone’s platform.
Big 4 Exchange
Coinone is one of South Korea’s leading crypto exchanges and is usually counted among its Big 4 platforms along with UPbit, Bithumb, and Korbit which together handle over 90% percent trading volume in the country. Moreover, South Korean regulators recently prescribed stricter rules that exchanges operating in South Korea must abide by; Coinone met these requirements as well as some others like it did earlier this week when it came into spotlight following the news about its own CEO being arrested due to fraud allegations against him.
Furever Coin Linked To Murder Case
The authorities mentioned that one coin listed on their exchange could be linked with a possible murder case too where a 48-year old was kidnapped from Gangnam district in Seoul and possibly killed due to a crypto investment made through Coinone not going as expected; this asset was known as Furever coin.
Conclusion
Coinone is one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea founded back in 2014 by Kevin Cha with an aim to serve users based there but later expanded its services globally by 2017 when it became part of Big 4 crypto exchanges in the country handling massive trading volumes every day amongst themselves but now have come under scanner due to these recent events leaving investors worried about what may happen next with these cases still unresolved so far