Crypto Shockwave: Bitsonic Leadership Faces Prison Time For $7.5M Theft

The head honcho at Bitsonic, the crypto trading place, got slapped with a seven-year prison term. Meanwhile, the tech bigwig from the same company got a one-year jail sentence. Why? They were caught snatching a whopping 10 billion South Korean won ($7.5 million) in customer deposits.

On Feb 6, 2024, Yonhap News Agency said the Seoul District Court slapped Jinwook Shin with a seven-year jail term. Additionally, They captured him on Aug 7, 2023, accusing him of fraud, faking records, and messing with a business using a computer.

Mr. A, Bitsonic’s vice president of technology, has been sentenced to a one-year jail term for the charge of computer-mediated obstruction of business.

However, the court stated that Shin and Mr. A messed up their trust in crypto exchanges. They said these guys are not taking responsibility and don’t seem sorry. Trust got a big hit, according to the court.

**Shin received a seven-year prison sentence. Source: X**

It stated that a good chunk of the money from customers still needs to be included.

The court found that Shin messed with the exchange numbers from Jan 2019 to May 2021. He used Bitsonic’s money to buy his token, making the price go up, and that’s not cool.

Bitsonic Scandal Unraveled: Fake Transactions & Stolen Millions

Moreover, Mr. A tricked the exchange by putting fake money in their system, making it seem like he added real cash. Additionally, he made a program that bought Shin’s cryptocurrency, boosting the prices on the exchange.

Shin tricked everyone on Bitsonic using a fake message, claiming they teamed up with a foreign exchange.

The plan fell apart because people needed help to take out their money, including cash and digital currency. However, Shin took $7.5 million from the customers’ funds. Bitsonic shut down in Aug 2021, stating it faced problems inside and outside the company.

On Feb 6, the Seoul Prosecutors Office nabbed the CEO and two other big shots from Haru Invest, a crypto platform. It had stopped letting people take out their money back in June 2023.

However, the three folks are said to have taken 1.1 trillion won (equals $830 million) in crypto from 16,000 users. They took most of the money by investing it again from Mar 2020 to June 2023.

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