'10 Billion Fraud' Coin Exchange Bitsonic CEO Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison in Second Trial

The CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange ‘Bitsonic,’ who was prosecuted for inflating the market price and trading volume of self-issued coins and embezzling approximately 10 billion KRW in customer deposits, was sentenced to prison again in the second trial.

Seoul Central District Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

On the 25th, the Criminal Division 5 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Kwon Soon-hyung, Ahn Seung-hoon, Shim Seung-woo) dismissed both the defendant’s and the prosecution’s appeals in the appellate trial of Shin (41), the CEO of Bitsonic, who was detained and indicted on charges including fraud under the Specific Economic Crimes Act, and sentenced him to seven years in prison, the same as the first trial. The CTO of Bitsonic, Bae (44), who was also indicted on charges of obstructing business by computer means, was sentenced to one year in prison, the same as in the first trial.

The court stated, “Shin, as the representative of the company operating the coin exchange and the de facto issuer of a specific virtual asset, abused his superior and overlapping status to repeatedly commit crimes over a long period against an unspecified number of users of the exchange,” and criticized, “This fundamentally undermined social trust in the transparent and fair operation of virtual asset exchanges, which is highly condemnable.”

Regarding the accomplice Bae, the court pointed out, “Despite being requested by Shin to create a program that damages the essential functions of the exchange, he did not refuse,” and added, “He bears significant responsibility as he substantially contributed to causing economic damage to numerous victims.”

Previously, Shin was prosecuted for increasing the trading volume by repurchasing large quantities of ‘Bitsonic Coin’ (BSC), issued by Bitsonic, with Bitsonic’s funds in a so-called ‘buyback’ scheme from January 2019 to May 2021 to inflate the coin’s price. He was also charged with manipulating the internal system to falsely show cash deposits. Investigations revealed that Shin embezzled cash and virtual assets worth approximately 10 billion KRW deposited by 101 investors through these methods.

Bae was also prosecuted for creating and operating a program that prioritized the purchase of coins held by Shin within the trading system.

The first trial court sentenced Shin to seven years in prison and Bae to one year in prison. Both the defendants and the prosecution appealed the first trial’s verdict.

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