Suspected of stealing BRL 36 million from his clients, the owner of cryptocurrency brokerage Bitsonic was arrested and is awaiting trial in South Korea.
As it turns out, the platform stopped looting customers for the last time in August 2021, never to release value again. At that time, bitcoin was experiencing one of its biggest upward moves in the market, which would be confirmed in November of that year, when 1 BTC reached a price of US$69,000.
Jinwook Shin, the CEO of Bitsonic, has blocked customer recordings and claimed several issues on his platform. However, research indicates that he may have fled the situation with money from investors.
CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitsonic is arrested and put on trial.
According to the Korean portal Chosun, prosecutors in South Korea have been thoroughly investigating the case since Bitsonic stopped recording and customers began to complain.
The main suspect is the CEO, who was recently arrested by the authorities. Among the charges against him are forgery of documents and crimes that violate local law.
His arrest is said to have taken place on August 7, 2023, confirmed by authorities a day later. Bitsonic’s vice president was also put on trial in recent days on suspicion of obstructing investigations into the crime. However, the VP of the brokerage has not yet been arrested.
According to the prosecution’s investigation, Bitsonic’s CEO did not hold any real cryptocurrencies on his exchange, only showing customers fake charts and trades. The exchange’s volumes were also nothing more than mirages and investors had problems trading with the platform.
The investigation shows that the fraud lasted from January 2019 to May 2021, when the scheme collapsed for good. During the life of the plan, Shin warned investors that his platform had a commercial partnership with a major international cryptocurrency exchange, in an attempt to legitimize his fraudulent platform.
As the scheme began to collapse, South Korea’s “Bitcoin King” attempted a desperate maneuver
When clients began requesting withdrawals from the brokerage, the CEO tried maneuvers not to process orders because he held less than he had actually promised investors. That is, the brokerage had no ownership segregation of cryptocurrencies and mixed the client’s property with the owner’s personal money, amid fraud.
It is worth remembering that a similar case occurred in Brazil with the Bitcoin Banco Group, a target of the federal police in Operation Daemon, who arrested the king of Bitcoins, Cláudio Oliveira. He also maintained a fake trading platform for clients, simulating operations. When customers asked for withdrawals, the problems started.
In South Korea, since the fall of the earth (LUNA) in 2022, Do Kwon’s plan, the authorities have tightened the penalties for those who commit crimes in the cryptocurrency market.
It is not yet clear how long Shin can remain in prison for the Bitsonic case, accompanied by his vice president, who is also under investigation in the case.
Source: Live Coins
Barry Siefert is an accomplished journalist and author at The Nation View. He is known for his expertise in the field of cryptocurrency, and has written extensively on the topic. With a background in finance and economics, Barry has a deep understanding of the underlying technology and market forces that drive the crypto industry.
