South Korean prosecutors have requested a 20-year jail sentence for the CEO of crypto deposit service Delio, calling the size of alleged fraud in opposition to hundreds of traders “large.”
Throughout closing arguments on the Seoul Southern District Courtroom on Thursday, prosecutors requested the courtroom to condemn Jeong Sang-ho underneath the Act on Aggravated Punishment of Particular Financial Crimes, citing what they described as deliberate deception and false promotion that left practically 2,800 victims with out entry to their funds, in accordance to the Korean information company Yonhap.
“The defendant’s energetic misleading acts and false promotion have resulted in quite a few victims, and the size of the injury is very large,” prosecutors reportedly mentioned, including that Jeong was “exacerbating their struggling by evading accountability and sustaining an uncooperative perspective.”
Delio operated a crypto deposit service that promised traders high-interest returns on cash deposited for a set interval. On June 14, 2023, the platform abruptly suspended withdrawals, freezing buyer belongings value 250 billion Korean gained ($169 million). A Seoul courtroom declared the corporate bankrupt in November 2024.
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Delio CEO acknowledges hurt executed to traders
Jeong’s authorized group acknowledged the hurt prompted. “We’re conscious of the sufferer’s struggling and really feel a deep sense of accountability,” his lawyer reportedly mentioned, including that Jeong would search to compensate victims if acquitted.
Jeong was indicted in April 2025 on fees of embezzling $169 million in crypto belongings from victims over roughly two years, between August 2021 and June 2023.
The primary-instance verdict is scheduled for July 16.
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South Korea launches crackdown on exchanges
The information comes amid South Korea’s launch of a regulatory crackdown on crypto exchanges. Earlier this month, the nation fined Coinone, the nation’s third-largest alternate, and ordered a partial enterprise suspension over Anti-Cash Laundering failures.
The motion marks the second such crackdown in a number of months, following a $24 million advantageous and six-month partial suspension handed to Bithumb in March for comparable Anti-Cash Laundering failures. The strain on exchanges intensified after Bithumb mistakenly despatched clients 620,000 Bitcoin, value round $42 billion on the time, as an alternative of 620,000 Korean gained.
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