The world of cryptocurrency has its fair share of corruption and malicious activities. Three cryptocurrency exchanges working in South Korea have been suspected for embezzlement of their customers’ funds and were raided by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office.
According to a report, the exchanges came under the eyes of the Financial Services Commission (FSC). The government body suspected the exchange staff along with executives to be siphoning off money from the customer’s accounts and then using it to purchase cryptocurrencies from other exchanges.
During the raid, the South Korean prosecutors got hold of hard drives, mobile phones, as well as documents while searching for evidence. Here is what one of the prosecutors had to say on the matter:
“The firms turned up on our radar in January during our investigation of suspicious money transfers between Bitcoin exchanges that were detected during an audit by the Financial Services Commission and the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit.”
The Financial Supervisory Service had started an investigation back in January in search for possible insider trading of digital currencies by crypto exchanges. The institution had also stated that they would make public any and all of their findings. This is also the same time when the Korea Customs Service declared that around $600 million was illegally exchanged in foreign countries which includes unrecorded capital outflow using digital currencies.
By the end of January, the South Korean government had entirely restricted crypto trading and outlawed anonymous virtual accounts. Since then, accounts that were associated with identified users would only be accepted by approved banks. Also back in September ICOs were also banned from the country.
South Korea is increasingly tightening the scrutiny of crypto-based businesses in the country. They have practically pulled a clamp down on the entire industry fearing it will lead to money laundering as well as other illegal activities. However, the country is still open-minded about blockchain technologies and thinking on how to use it for their benefits.