Authorities Bust $232M Crypto Scam in South Korea, Arrest 215 Suspects

South Korean authorities have arrested 215 people in reference to a large cryptocurrency funding rip-off price an estimated 325.6 billion gained – round $232 million.

The arrests, led by the Anti-Corruption and Financial Crime Investigation Unit of the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police, contain staff of a fraudulent funding consulting agency and its founder, who occurs to be a preferred YouTuber with a following of 620,000. The latter’s identify has not been revealed but.

Massive-Scale Crypto Fraud Scheme

The scheme allegedly operated between December 2021 and March of final 12 months and focused over 15,000 victims, who have been primarily middle-aged and aged people, by promising 20-fold returns on digital asset investments. As per the report by Seoul-based media Yonhap, the group even managed to influence a few of the victims to promote their houses or take out loans to take part.

The fraudulent funding concerned 28 completely different tokens, although investigations revealed that solely six have been really created by the group. These tokens have been listed on abroad exchanges through brokers, who artificially drove up their costs by making inside purchases earlier than promoting them to buyers.

In the meantime, the opposite 22 tokens skilled low buying and selling volumes and have been discovered to be nearly nugatory.

Amongst these arrested, twelve are nonetheless held in detention, together with the YouTuber who ran the consulting agency. He had escaped South Korea, first touring to Hong Kong and Singapore earlier than reaching Australia.

This isn’t the primary occasion of scammers preying on the aged with elaborate cryptocurrency schemes. Earlier this 12 months, South Korean authorities arrested two people of their 20s and 30s who have been behind the same rip-off aimed toward a senior. The sufferer, a person in his 60s, suffered a lack of round 5.5 billion South Korean gained, equal to just about $4.1 million.

South Korean Crypto Market Enlargement

Amidst these crackdowns on fraudulent schemes concentrating on susceptible populations, South Korea’s cryptocurrency market is experiencing vital growth, with tens of millions extra getting into the house. The truth is, a current report from the nation’s Monetary Intelligence Unit (FIU) revealed that the cryptocurrency investor base has grown to 7.78 million within the first half of 2024, up 21% from final 12 months.

The expansion is basically attributed to Bitcoin’s worth surge, with each day transaction volumes rising 67% to six trillion gained – round $4.3 billion. The full market worth elevated by 27%, reaching 55.3 trillion gained – valued at roughly $40 billion. Male buyers dominate, notably these of their 30s. Most crypto customers maintain small portfolios, however a minority have vital belongings, with only a few holding over $724,000.