The CEO of Crypto firm, Haru Invest was stabbed in court by a middle-aged man while attending a trial for an alleged $826 million crypto fraud.
Hugo Hyungsoo Lee the CEO was stabbed by a man reportedly in his 50s during court proceedings about the alleged $826 million crypto fraud.
Mr. Lee was immediately rushed to the hospital following the incident as reported by local media.
The injuries sustained by the accused CEO were reportedly not life-threatening and the attacker was confirmed to be a former customer of Haru Invest.
The Haru Invest trial is hugging all the headlines in South Korea not just because of the humungous amount involved but also because it comes at a time when South Korea is updating its laws to protect consumers.
Mr. Lee was among three executives arrested in early February with charges of embezzlement involving about 1 trillion Won worth of crypto assets.
The Case against Haru Invest
The prosecution at the trial alleged that Haru Invest received deposits from around 16,000 customers between March 2020 and June 2023. The firm went on to then invest the funds received whole, allegedly falsely advertising that they were “operating them stably using a risk-drive diversified investment technique.”
The firm was advertising annual interest rates of up to 12% for Digital assets investments to its customers.
However, on June 2023, crypto withdrawals were suspended without notice trapping user funds.
Korean Government Passes a law to protect consumers
The Korean government in a bid to tackle consumer protection in the field of Crypto passed a law in June 2023 to guarantee the protection of assets held by users.
The “Virtual Asset User Protection Act” by the Korean government also aims to regulate unfair transaction activities, provide greater market oversight, and pass authority to the Financial Services Commission.
The Korean government identified the regulatory lapses in the crypto market, especially in areas of protecting user assets from fraud.
The new law by the Korean government hopes to regulate more effectively supervise and sanction virtual asset service providers and assist victims with relief measures.
What to Know
- As of the end of 2023, around 6.5 million South Korean citizens, or 12.5% of the population, were involved in cryptocurrency. This is an increase from 5.87 million registered users in May 2021, which was a threefold increase in just four months.
- South Korea’s crypto market has seen a surge in users and trading volumes, especially in the second half of 2023. In the first quarter of 2024, the South Korean won was the most-used fiat currency for crypto trading, surpassing the US dollar.
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