"Hey, why do you want to be a CEO now, it's fun cheating to steal people's money."
A South Korean district court has sentenced the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of cryptocurrency exchange Bitsonic to eight years in prison for stealing millions of dollars in customer funds.
Explained further, Chief Justice Lee Jong-Chae imposed the sentence on Bitsonic CEO Jinwook Shin and CTO known as Bae during the first trial of the case at the Seoul Eastern District Court.
Shin was found guilty of manipulating the crypto price and trading volume on Bitsonic from January 2019 to May 2021 using a buyback method where he bought back a large amount of Bitsonic Coin (BSC) to increase the price of his token.
In addition to applying the buyback method, the CEO entered fake Korean Won points into the Bitsonic system to create the illusion of an exchange that received large deposits but the opposite actually happened.
Through the technique, Shin recruited 101 investors and then stole cash and crypto deposits worth $7.5 million and this led to the court charging him with fraud, falsification of personal records and obstruction of business by computer.
Bae was sentenced on charges of obstructing business following a computer hack for creating and operating a program that allowed Shin to implement buyback methods.
It is well known that the South Korean authorities arrested Shin in August 2023, which is two years immediately after Bitsonic announced the closure of its operations following internal and external issues.
