30s Summary
South Korean finance YouTuber, Mr. A, has been accused of orchestrating a vast cryptocurrency fraud scheme. He allegedly created a network of fake companies, issued six cryptocurrencies and manipulated the market for these coins. From over 15,000 investors, he reportedly swindled around $232.7 million. His victims were primarily sourced from his YouTube channel’s phone number collection. Police arrested 215 people, including Mr. A, who attempted to flee to Australia, and confiscated 22 Bitcoin and are aiming to seize $34 million from connected accounts. This is reportedly the biggest crypto fraud case in South Korea’s history.
Full Article
A popular finance YouTuber in South Korea, known as Mr. A, who had over 620,000 followers, has been accused of setting up a massive cryptocurrency fraud. The whole thing came to light after his followers, who were also his investors, became displeased with the poor investment advice he had been giving and asked for refunds.
Mr. A was apparently running this giant scam scheme, which resulted in the police arresting 215 people. This included Mr. A himself, who had tried to escape to Australia but was caught.
Cops say that Mr. A began selling these digital investments after getting heat for some bad stock suggestions he made in 2020. He is said to have established a whole chain of fake companies to carry out this fraud.
Allegedly, Mr. A and his buddies pocketed around $232.7 million from over 15,000 people, who were investing in 28 different cryptocurrencies between the end of 2021 and start of 2023.
Interestingly, six of those 28 digital coins had been issued by Mr. A and his team themselves! They even manipulated the market for these coins. The remaining coins were pretty much unknown and not worth much.
Mr. A and his fraudster friends had collected around 9 million phone numbers. They got them from Mr. A’s YouTube channel and used them to advertise to new, unsuspecting victims, many of whom were middle-aged or elderly. They even pretended to be members of the Financial Supervisory Service.
People who got caught in this web of deceit had to cough up $854,000 to take part and were even told to sell their homes to manage the payment.
The police managed to confiscate 22 Bitcoin from Mr. A and are seeking approval to seize $34 million from bank accounts connected to this scandal.
This unfortunately goes down in history as the largest crypto fraud ever in South Korea, a country already dealing with a growing number of similar scams. To combat this, South Korea is now keeping a close eye on any suspicious cryptocurrency transactions and have even slapped harsh penalties on fraudsters, including life sentences.