A former executive at Coinone, one of South Korea's top five cryptocurrency exchanges, pleaded guilty on Thursday to accepting bribes to effect the listing of certain cryptocurrencies on the platform. .
Note: According to regulations in Korea, authorities only reveal the defendant's last name for privacy reasons.
Key points:
The defendant, known only as Jeon, allegedly received about 2 billion Korean won between 2020 and 2022 in exchange for listing a cryptocurrency on Coinone that he knew could be manipulated market price.
Prosecutors charged that some of the tokens at issue were linked to companies hired to manipulate the cryptocurrency's price. The accused coins include Pica Coin and Puriever.
The lawsuit took place at the Seoul Southern District Court after Jeon was first arrested for bribery on March 22.
Jeon and his broker Koh - who also allegedly facilitated the listing - admitted to the accusations. However, the couple's legal representatives said they would not officially admit guilt until all available evidence had been reviewed.
Another former employee at Coinone, known only as Kim, along with broker Hwang, were also allegedly involved in the case. However, both Kim and Hwang have yet to respond to the charges against them during Thursday's trial. Kim is said to have received US$784,000 for his role for the alleged misconduct.
Coinone did not respond to Forkast's request for comment as of 1:00 p.m. in Hong Kong on Friday.
The next trial for the four defendants is scheduled to take place on June 15.
Hwang Suk-jin, a financial crime and information security expert based in Seoul, said: “Some exchanges are transparent in listing tokens, but there are also many exchange employees. Transactions with frequent exploitative behavior.
South Korean prosecutors are looking to expand the investigation to other exchanges in the country as they search for more evidence of manipulation of cryptocurrency listings on the broader market.
The country's cryptocurrency market was valued at 19 trillion won ($14.3 billion) at the end of last year, making it one of the largest crypto markets in the world.
