Prosecutors Request Arrest Warrant for Pikacoin Issuer CEO... Applying Capital Markets Act

The prosecution has requested arrest warrants for the executives of Pica Project, a coin issuer accused of recruiting investors by claiming they could co-own famous artworks, issuing coins, and manipulating market prices.

On the 20th, the Financial Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Chae Hee-man) filed arrest warrants the previous day against Song (23) and Sung (44), co-CEOs of Pica Project, the issuer of Pica Coin (PICA), on charges including fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, fraudulent and unfair trading under the Capital Markets Act, breach of trust, and obstruction of business.

They are accused of issuing Pica Coin by claiming joint ownership of famous artworks, engaging in false promotion, and artificially manipulating market prices (MM·Market Making) to raise coin prices and realize profits.

The prosecution reportedly applied the Capital Markets Act, viewing the investment certificates issued to artwork fractional investors as securities, although Pica Coin itself is not classified as a security. They also consider their illegal MM activities as deceiving general investors and obstructing the operations of virtual asset exchanges.

Pica Coin was delisted from the virtual asset exchange Upbit in June 2021 due to violations of circulation volume regulations. Pica Project filed an injunction to suspend the effect of Upbit's decision to terminate trading support, but the court dismissed it in August 2021.

Meanwhile, Pica Coin is also implicated in the 'Coinone Listing Corruption' case, where listing brokers allegedly bribed Coinone employees with kickbacks in exchange for listing certain coins on the virtual asset exchange Coinone.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.