The real owner of the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, who was put on trial for allegedly committing fraud worth hundreds of billions of won, has been acquitted.
On the 13th, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling of not guilty for Lee Jung-hoon, the former chairman of Bithumb Holdings and Bithumb Korea, who was charged with fraud under the Specific Economic Crimes Weighted Punishment Act.
Lee was indicted for allegedly deceiving Kim, the chairman of BK Group, in October 2018 by proposing the acquisition of Bithumb and falsely promising to issue and list the so-called ‘Bithumb Coin’ as a pretext to illicitly acquire 110 billion won as a down payment.
Kim believed Lee’s words and used some of the proceeds from the pre-sale of the coin to fund the purchase of Bithumb shares, but the coin was not listed, and Kim’s acquisition of Bithumb was said to have fallen through, according to investigations.
However, the first trial ruled that there was no evidence that Lee guaranteed the listing, resulting in a not guilty verdict. The second trial also noted that while Lee’s exaggerated statements could be considered in civil liability, they were insufficient to prosecute the contract itself as a criminal fraud under the law.