{"id":87241,"date":"2023-11-21T19:35:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T00:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/markets\/crypto\/trial-of-bithumb-operators-ceo-begins\/"},"modified":"2023-11-21T19:35:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T00:35:57","slug":"trial-of-bithumb-operators-ceo-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241","title":{"rendered":"Trial of Bithumb Operator\u2019s CEO Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_134099\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-134099\" style=\"width: 1500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><noscript><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-134099\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: chones\/Adobe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The trial of Lee Sang-jun, the CEO of the crypto exchange Bithumb\u2019s parent company, has begun in Seoul, South Korea.<\/p>\n<p>Lee (54), the CEO of Bithumb Holdings, is being tried alongside the former pro golfer and celebrity Ahn Seong-hyeon (42) on charges of \u201csoliciting the listings\u201d of unnamed altcoins.<\/p>\n<p>The media outlet Newsis reported that the trial began on November 21 at a branch of the Seoul Southern District Court.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors signaled their intention to indict the two men on charges of breach of trust in August.<\/p>\n<p>They have claimed that Ahn convinced Lee to list the coin on the Bithumb exchange.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udd25 Bithumb Plans IPO In Korea, Eyes Top Spot in Local Market<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BithumbOfficial?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BithumbOfficial<\/a> is keen on becoming the first industry-related company to get listed on the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ).<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CryptoNews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CryptoNews<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/news?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#news<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/MTLFuIMLjD<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cryptonews\/status\/1724007837754376331?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 13, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ahn attained celebrity status in 2017 when he married the K-pop star Sung Yu-ri, a former member of the all-female group FinK.L<\/p>\n<p>He has also coached the national golf team, and prosecutors think Ahn is a close friend of the reclusive businessman Kang Jong-hyun.<\/p>\n<p>Kang is the alleged majority \u201cowner\u201d of Bithumb, and allegedly bought several firms that hold minority stakes in the trading platform.<\/p>\n<p>The businessman will also be tried on similar charges, although he faces a separate trial on unrelated stock price manipulation charges.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_134107\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-134107\" style=\"width: 1840px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><noscript><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-134107\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Trading volumes on the Bithumb crypto exchange over the past 12 months. (Source: CoinGecko)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Did Bribes Lead Bithumb to List Speculative \u2018Kimchi Coins?\u2019<\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"replacer\"><\/span><br \/>Prosecutors say that Lee and Ahn \u201creceived a request from\u201d Kang, who wanted them to help him list two \u201cso-called \u2018kimchi coins\u2019 on Bithumb.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kimchi coins are typically low-cap South Korean coins that often have low trust ratings and are used for speculative investments.<\/p>\n<p>They boomed around 2019-2021, but most larger exchanges began culling them from their platforms in mid-2021 following a spate of controversies.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution claims that Kang made payments to the duo between September to November 2021.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_134112\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-134112\" style=\"width: 837px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><noscript><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-134112\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ahn Seong-hyeon leaves a court hearing earlier this year. (Source: SBS News\/YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Prosecutors said that Lee and Ahn received over $2.3 million worth of cash, as well as \u201ctwo luxury watches\u201d worth \u201ca total of $311,000.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They think Ahn acted as a go-between for Kang and Lee, with Kang staying away from the day-to-day running of the exchange.<\/p>\n<p>The duo also allegedly spent almost $9,000 in a high-end restaurant with a membership card they received.<\/p>\n<h2>Exchange Fast-tracked Coin Listings, Say Prosecutors<\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"replacer\"><\/span><br \/>Prosecutors said that Kang asked Lee to \u201cquickly list the two coins\u201d on the Bithumb platform.<\/p>\n<p>And the prosecution also believes that Ahn duped Kang into paying out more money by claiming that Lee wanted another $1.6 million to list the coins.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors think that Kang agreed to hand over the money, but that Ahn pocketed this payment himself.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83c\uddf0\ud83c\uddf7 South Korean Traders Drive Recent Crypto Surge as Exchanges\u2019 Market Share Jumps to 13%<\/p>\n<p>Traders in Asia, especially in South Korea, have emerged as key drivers behind the recent rally in the crypto market over the past two months.<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CryptoNews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CryptoNews<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Korea?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Korea<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/4LTjDCiruy<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cryptonews\/status\/1725093192012374071?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 16, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The identity of the coins has not been revealed, but at least one was described as a \u201clow-trust\u201d coin.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said the token is rarely listed because it has no \u201cassociated business\u201d and \u201cits substance is unclear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors think that Kang\u2019s intention in listing the coin on Bithumb was to artificially spike the price of the token and \u201cmake profits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Courts rejected prosecutors\u2019 initial attempt to indict Ahn and Lee on September 1.<\/p>\n<p>But prosecutors were successful when they tried again with a second bid lodged on September 28.<\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter home-newsletter single\">\n<div class=\"left-side\">\n<p>\n        <em><br \/>\n            Enter your email for our Free Daily Newsletter        <\/em>\n    <\/p>\n<p> A quick 3min read about today&#8217;s crypto news!<\/p>\n<p>    <span class=\"response-msg\" id=\"newsletter-response\"><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.com\/news\/trial-of-bithumb-operators-ceo-begins.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: chones\/Adobe The trial of Lee Sang-jun, the CEO of the crypto exchange Bithumb\u2019s parent company, has begun in Seoul, South Korea. Lee (54), the CEO of Bithumb Holdings, is being tried alongside the former pro golfer and celebrity Ahn Seong-hyeon (42) on charges of \u201csoliciting the listings\u201d of unnamed altcoins. The media outlet Newsis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-87241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Trial of Bithumb Operator\u2019s CEO Begins | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Source: chones\/Adobe The trial of Lee Sang-jun, the CEO of the crypto exchange Bithumb\u2019s parent company, has begun in Seoul, South Korea. Lee (54), the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trial of Bithumb Operator\u2019s CEO Begins | iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source: chones\/Adobe The trial of Lee Sang-jun, the CEO of the crypto exchange Bithumb\u2019s parent company, has begun in Seoul, South Korea. Lee (54), the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-22T00:35:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-22T00:35:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1700556886-adobestock_293657474.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1001\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\"},\"headline\":\"Trial of Bithumb Operator\u2019s CEO Begins\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-22T00:35:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-22T00:35:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241\"},\"wordCount\":631,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Crypto\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241\",\"name\":\"Trial of Bithumb Operator\u2019s CEO Begins | iFintechWorld\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-22T00:35:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-22T00:35:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"Source: chones\/Adobe The trial of Lee Sang-jun, the CEO of the crypto exchange Bithumb\u2019s parent company, has begun in Seoul, South Korea. Lee (54), the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trial of Bithumb Operator\u2019s CEO Begins\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"description\":\"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"width\":558,\"height\":90,\"caption\":\"Repay Down\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Trial of Bithumb Operator\u2019s CEO Begins | iFintechWorld","description":"Source: chones\/Adobe The trial of Lee Sang-jun, the CEO of the crypto exchange Bithumb\u2019s parent company, has begun in Seoul, South Korea. Lee (54), the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Trial of Bithumb Operator\u2019s CEO Begins | iFintechWorld","og_description":"Source: chones\/Adobe The trial of Lee Sang-jun, the CEO of the crypto exchange Bithumb\u2019s parent company, has begun in Seoul, South Korea. Lee (54), the","og_url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241","og_site_name":"iFintechWorld","article_published_time":"2023-11-22T00:35:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-22T00:35:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1500,"height":1001,"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1700556886-adobestock_293657474.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61"},"headline":"Trial of Bithumb Operator\u2019s CEO Begins","datePublished":"2023-11-22T00:35:55+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-22T00:35:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241"},"wordCount":631,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Featured"],"articleSection":["Crypto"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241","name":"Trial of Bithumb Operator\u2019s CEO Begins | iFintechWorld","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-11-22T00:35:55+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-22T00:35:57+00:00","description":"Source: chones\/Adobe The trial of Lee Sang-jun, the CEO of the crypto exchange Bithumb\u2019s parent company, has begun in Seoul, South Korea. Lee (54), the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=87241#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trial of Bithumb Operator\u2019s CEO Begins"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","name":"Repay Down","description":"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization","name":"Repay Down","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","width":558,"height":90,"caption":"Repay Down"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com"],"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87243,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87241\/revisions\/87243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}