Ahn Sung-hyun, the former CEO of the Asian crypto exchange Bithumb, has been sentenced to four years and six months in prison. The Seoul Southern District Court of South Korea found him guilty of fraud for accepting over $3.6 million in exchange for listing a crypto asset on the popular exchange.
Sung-Hyun’s $3.6M Fraud
The court’s verdict was announced on December 26, and Sung-Hyun was immediately taken into custody. He was accused of conspiring with Lee Sang-jun, another former CEO of Bithumb Holdings, to accept bribes from businessman Kang Jong-hyun in exchange for listing crypto. The bribe included $2.05 million in won fiat, two luxury watches worth about $273,000, and restaurant membership benefits.
Sung-Hyun was also charged with separately defrauding Kang of $1.37 million by falsely claiming that CEO Lee was demanding the money as a listing fee. The court ruled that he had unlawfully obtained the entire $3.33 million in won fiat cash from Kang but found no evidence that he had delivered any to ex-CEO Lee. Instead, the court concluded that he had used the funds for his luxury.
The verdict also implicated Lee Sang-jun, who was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $35,500 in won. Businessman Kang Jong-hyun, who had provided the bribe, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison. However, Song, a representative of the token creator, was acquitted of all charges.
Nonetheless, Sung-Hyun protested his innocence in court, claiming he had not committed fraud or accepted money in exchange for listing the crypto. He acknowledged that his actions may have caused misunderstandings but insisted that he had also lost millions of dollars. Despite his protests, the court upheld the guilty verdict and sentenced him to prison.
Not the First Listing Scandal
The crypto industry has witnessed a few listing controversies in recent times. The founder of Tron, Justin Sun, has criticized Coinbase’s project listing requirements, contradicting CEO Brian Armstrong’s claim that listings are free. Sun revealed that Tron paid 500 million TRX and deposited $250 million in Bitcoin into Coinbase custody to list on the exchange.
Following the listing of cbBTC and the delisting announcement of WBTC by Coinbase, BiT Global, the custodian of wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), sued the exchange for over $1 billion. The lawsuit claims that Coinbase’s decision to delist WBTC from its exchange was motivated by a desire to promote its rival product, cbBTC.
