South Korean crypto exchange Komid has been faking trading volume and deceiving investors for a while and now two of its executives, including the CEO, bear the brunt of it all with some jail time.
According to a report from CoinDesk Korea, Hyunsuk Choi, the firm’s CEO received a three-year sentence for embezzlement and his role in the crime. The court discovered that Choi has had a number of fake accounts on the exchange in January 2018 and was using a trading bot to make millions of false transactions with cryptocurrency and Korean won credit, that in reality did not actually exist.
The court presided over by South Korea’s top judge Ahn Seong-joon, also concluded that Choi transferred bitcoin from the exchange to an external wallet. According to local news source Blockinpress, another member of the team, Park Mo, also received a two-year sentence.
The publication added that the crime brought in around $45 million in fees, the judge said:
“Choi has committed fraud for a countless number of victims for a long period of time … Futhermore, he holds the financial authorities responsible for failing to keep track of the industry better.”
Reportedly, Choi was arrested after the sentencing hearing. In April, South Korean police detained four executives from two cryptocurrency exchanges over alleged embezzlement. One executive amongst them CEO of Coinnest, while the identities of the other executives and the other exchange were not made public at the time.
Read more: The Mastermind Behind ‘Big Bitcoin Heist’ Jailed for Massive Crypto Mining Rig Theft
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