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Several South Korean cryptocurrency bithumb executives are now being assailed by allegations of misappropriation of funds and market manipulation, according to the South Korean financial agency infomax.
On the basis of these charges, a warrant for his arrest was issued for kang jong-hyeon, who is considered the "real owner of bithumb.
Bithumb Executives Under Fire
On Wednesday, members of the legal community confirmed that Kang and two of Bithumb’s executives have been sentenced by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office on embezzlement and breach of trust charges. They have also been charged with fraud under the Financial Markets Act.
Kang's younger sister, Kang ji-yeon, runs subsidiaries of bithumb, including inbiogen and bucket studio – a shoe company and a retail company respectively. The former allegedly artificially inflated both companies' share prices by issuing convertible bonds.
“Prosecutors seized the circumstances in which Mr. In October of last year, they seized and excavated bithumb subsidiaries, like empty, inbiogen and bucket studio», said infomax.
The shares in each company were related to each other: vidente is the main shareholder in bithumb, inbiogen is the first empty shareholder, and bucket studio is the major investor in inbiogen.
The problems of Bithumb.
Bithumb has been under investigation by the state's attorney's office for months over an alleged $70 million fraud by former president Lee Jung-hoon. After being charged in October, Jung-hoon was found not guilty earlier this month.
Two weeks ago, the prosecutor's office initiated a new investigation into whether Kang had breached national tax laws, including an investigation into his brother's activities.
Vidente’s vice president Park Mo’s body was found dead in Seoul late last month, with reports suggesting the death may have been suicide. Rumor had it that Park was watching Kang's siblings' accounts when he was vice president of Vidente. There were suspicions that the kang brothers had framed the park for embezzlement and market manipulation at the time.
