1 week ago
South Korean prosecutors raided the office of crypto speech Bithumb connected March 19 arsenic portion of an probe into whether the company’s erstwhile CEO misused firm funds to acquisition an apartment, according to section media reports.
Authorities from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office searched Bithumb’s Yeoksam-dong offices, looking into claims that the speech provided a 3 cardinal won ($2.3 million) lease deposit to its erstwhile CEO and existent advisor, Kim Dae-sik.
Investigators fishy that Kim utilized a information of these funds to get a idiosyncratic residence successful Seoul’s Seongsu-dong district.
The timing of the probe raises caller concerns for Bithumb, which has been moving toward a long-awaited archetypal nationalist offering (IPO).
CEO Lee Jae-won precocious reaffirmed the company’s intent to list connected the banal marketplace successful 2025 and has made structural changes to minimize ineligible risks tied to cardinal shareholders.
Funds repaid
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), South Korea’s fiscal regulator, antecedently examined the lawsuit earlier transferring it to prosecutors.
Following the investigation, a Bithumb spokesperson acknowledged successful an interrogation with The Chosun Daily that Kim had taken a indebtedness from an outer lender aft the FSS probe and aboriginal repaid the funds.
Despite the repayment, prosecutors are reviewing whether the archetypal transaction violated fiscal regulations oregon firm governance rules. The lawsuit has intensified scrutiny implicit Bithumb’s interior fiscal absorption arsenic authorities proceed to show the country’s crypto assemblage for imaginable misconduct.
It has besides raised concerns astir broader governance and fiscal practices wrong the exchange, which has faced repeated ineligible and regulatory scrutiny successful caller years.
Listing allegations
The raid comes amid separate allegations that Bithumb and rival speech Upbit facilitated token listings done intermediaries who allegedly charged projects hefty fees.
Researcher Wu Blockchain reported that immoderate projects paid betwixt $2 cardinal and $10 cardinal to unafraid listings connected the exchanges. The allegations besides suggest that definite intermediaries had ties to Upbit shareholders and marketplace makers, with fees ranging from 3% to 5% of token supplies.
Upbit has denied the claims and demanded that Wu Blockchain supply a database of projects that allegedly paid brokerage fees, calling for grounds to enactment the accusations.
The station South Korean authorities raid Bithumb successful firm money misuse inquiry appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
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