'Aladdin Hacking Incident' Bitcoin Collector Sentenced to 1 Year Imprisonment

A group that assisted a high school student who hacked the famous online bookstore 'Aladin' and extorted money was sentenced to prison.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 27th, Judge Park Kang-min of the Criminal Division 6 at the Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced Park (31) and Jung (26), who were detained and prosecuted on charges of blackmail and violation of the Act on the Regulation and Punishment of Criminal Proceeds Concealment, to one year in prison each. They are accused of collecting and laundering the money extorted through threats by Park (17), who hacked Aladin. Park was detained and prosecuted last October on charges of extorting about 80 million KRW from Aladin by distributing 4,595 e-book files on Telegram.

On May 16 last year, Park hacked Aladin and threatened, "If you do not send 100 BTC (approximately 3.6 billion KRW at the time), it will go up to 1 million copies." After negotiations with Park, Aladin agreed to send 8 BTC (approximately 290 million KRW at the time) in three installments. When only 0.319 BTC was transferred due to suspicious transactions detected at a domestic virtual asset exchange, Park demanded 75.2 million KRW in cash, equivalent to 2 BTC.

Park entrusted Park and Jung with cash collection and Bitcoin conversion. They became acquainted by sharing e-book information and had only communicated via Telegram, never meeting in person. Jung collected the cash stored by Aladin at the locker in Seodaemun Station, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, under the condition of receiving 20 million KRW, converted it into Bitcoin, and handed it over to Park. Park kept about 0.4 BTC as his share and sent the rest to Park (the high school student).

Park is also on trial for hacking another online bookstore and the entrance exam academies Sidae Injae and Megastudy, distributing online lecture videos externally, and demanding Bitcoin. Park's sentencing trial is scheduled for the 2nd of next month.

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