"Profiting with Cryptocurrency"... 30s Man Who Embezzled Billions Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison

Bitcoin Reading Room Open Chat Scam
Court: "Considering Number of Victims and Damage Amount, Crime Severity is High"

A man in his 30s who pretended to have made significant profits from investments such as cryptocurrency and swindled 3 billion won from dozens of people under the pretext of investment funds was sentenced to seven years in prison.

According to the legal community on the 8th, Judge Kim Jeonghwan of the Suwon District Court Criminal Division 5 sentenced A, a man in his 30s, to seven years in prison on charges of fraud and attempted fraud.

A is accused of receiving and embezzling over 3 billion won from about 30 investors recruited through acquaintances and mobile messengers from January 2020 to last February. He operated public chat rooms titled "Bitcoin Leading Room (Recommendation Room)" and deceived investors by saying, "If you deposit cryptocurrency into my account, I will return the profits within a short period."

Suwon District Court

A exploited the victims' weakness of having already suffered losses from investments by coaxing them with statements such as, "(I) am making considerable profits from stock investments, so I will compensate for your losses," and "If you give me one to two weeks, I will recover the losses from your cryptocurrency investments." Investigations revealed that A had already borrowed money from multiple people to invest in stocks and cryptocurrencies, resulting in losses and substantial debts. Despite having neither the intention nor the ability to pay profits to the victims, he continued his crimes over a long period.

The court stated, "Considering the number of victims and the amount of damage, the nature of this crime is very serious," and added, "Some of the crimes were committed after police investigations for other offenses, and since the victims' damages have hardly been restored, it is inevitable to impose a severe sentence on the defendant."

Regarding the sentencing reasons, the court explained, "We took into account that the defendant admitted to the crimes, that some victims appeared to have given money to the defendant to gain profits in a short period, and that the defendant used a significant portion of the money received from the actual victims for cryptocurrency-related investments."

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