South Korean police have arrested two individuals involved in a cryptocurrency fraud case, seizing a pair of fraudsters who swindled 5.5 billion South Korean won ($4.1 million) from a senior citizen. The arrests were made by the Haeundae Police Station in Busan, with the suspects being in their 20s and 30s. They deceived the victim into sending a total of 5.5 billion won over multiple transactions, under the guise of promising high returns on cryptocurrency investments.
According to a local report, the scam occurred between September and December 2022, during which the fraudsters promised the victim a 70% profit on a monthly investment of 1 billion won. To convince the victim, they claimed, “It’s a boom period for coin (cryptocurrency). If you invest 1 billion won, I will call it 1.7 billion won a month later.”
As part of their deceptive practices, the suspects forged balance certificates and showed the victim fake balance sheets of crypto investments and real estate contracts. According to police reports, these documents falsely indicated that the victim had investments worth 20 billion won in cryptocurrencies, despite none of the funds being actually transferred to a crypto trading account.
In a separate but related development, South Korea’s notable crypto entrepreneur, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon, was reportedly released from prison in Montenegro on March 23. Kwon’s release follows the completion of his sentence for traveling with false documents. He is currently facing extradition requests from the United States and South Korea, linked to legal charges stemming from the collapse of the Terra ecosystem in 2022. According to prison director Darko Vukcevic, Kwon’s release was ordered by the Council of the Supreme Court, pending a review decision regarding his extradition.