The 34th Division of the Criminal Agreement of the Seoul Central District Court presided over by Judge Kang Gyu-Tae, rendered a not-guilty verdict on Lee Jung-hoon, the former chairman of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb.
According to a local news report, Lee Jung-Hoon went on trial for alleged violations of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.
Last year, police reopened an investigation involving Lee Jung-Hoon, and the chairman of cosmetic surgery company BK Group, Kim Byung-gun, regarding a case involving the acquisition of Bithumb.
When BK Group Chairman Kim Byung-gun planned to acquire Bithumb for around 400 billion won in October 2018, the former chairman Lee allegedly stole a portion of the acquisition price.
Lee apparently received a $70 million upfront payment from Kim at this time. The charges state that even though Lee received Kim’s payment for the guarantee that Bithumb would list the “Bithumb Coin” (BXA), the anticipated token listing never took place.
If proven guilty, Jung-hoon could have received an eight-year sentence. In addition to stating that the company is run by “professional managers” and that the former chairman is not currently involved in operations, Bithumb stated, “We respect the court’s ruling.”
The unsuccessful deal also resulted in losses for regular investors who had anticipated that the BXA coin would trade on Bithumb.
As a result, investors who had sustained large losses also reported Lee and Kim for fraud. Kim was charged with combining the pre-sale of BXA and a portion of the down payment.
Kim was able to dodge any punishment from the authorities, nevertheless, thanks to Lee’s alleged $70 million fraud during the deal.
The claims that Lee and Kim had arranged the sales together were denied by the prosecution and they came to the conclusion that Lee’s deception also affected Kim.
In the ongoing inquiry into Terra’s crash, Lee was one of six witnesses summoned, however, he claimed to have panic disorder and stated that he was not in charge of running Bithumb.
