South Korean Crypto Exchange To Be Arrested
A local media, Money Today, reported on Monday that arrest warrants had been issued to three employees of a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. The media wrote: “Three of the company’s executives, who operate virtual currency trading site HTS Coin, was arrested for [suspicion of] fraud and embezzlement.”
Token post detailed that, The Financial Investigation Division 2 of the South Korean Prosecutor’s Office “demanded a warrant for three employees, including…[the] CEO of HTS Coin.” They equally added that the other two employees are a program developer and a system operations manager.
The news release also stated that: “According to the prosecution, Shin [the representative director] and his employees are suspected of taking money out of their accounts by transferring customer funds from a bank account to another account.”
According to the publication, those employees are equally suspected of “deceiving investors, [by] pretending to” have cryptocurrencies “on the computer side without having real cryptocurrencies.”
Joongang added: “The prosecution believes that they have falsified” records and “used the money in the customer’s account as a personal account of the exchange.”
The exchange, in response to media reports, released a notice on Monday on its website maintaining that “All services except Korean won deposits, such as Korean won withdrawals, coin deposits, and coin withdrawals, are operating normally.”
The exchange also made it clear that: “HTS Coin is currently under investigation by the prosecution and we are working diligently…Unlike external concerns, we still have 100% of your deposits and coins. We keep customer deposits and coins that can be withdrawn promptly even if all customers request a withdrawal at the same time.”
Asiae says that an “interrogation of the suspects before the arrest was held in the southern part of Seoul on the morning of the same day.” It also added that in March, the “prosecutors searched three virtual currency exchanges including Coinnest, and it was reported that HTS Coin was included in the seizure investigation at that time.”
In an attempt to confirm this report, Joongang stated that “prosecutors searched three virtual currency exchanges including HTS Coin, Coinnest, and Komid last March.”
