South Korean Customs Reveals Illegal Cryptocurrency Transactions On $1.48 billion – Bits Media

As part of a campaign to identify illegal transactions with cryptocurrencies, deployed by the South Korean Customs Administration, 33 a citizen of the country came to the attention of law enforcement agencies.

In addition to the customs of South Korea, other departments also participated in the program. countries. As part of the investigation of transactions with cryptocurrencies on 14 citizens of the country, prosecutors opened criminal cases, more 15 people were fined, and four are under investigation.

According to law enforcement, about half of the announced amount, $710 million, related to illegal currency exchange. The persons involved in such transactions transferred large amounts to third parties after exchanges on cryptocurrency exchanges.. It's very similar to money laundering. A little less $700 million are associated with forging payment declarations for the purchase of cryptocurrencies abroad. The remaining funds were used from bank cards issued in South Korea to buy cryptocurrencies abroad.

So, in one case, the owner of the currency exchanger made 17,000 money transfer transactions, received from local cryptocurrency exchanges. The amount was about $280 million. He and three of his accomplices are awaiting trial for violating the Foreign Exchange Act.

In another case, a university student received a fine in the amount of $150 000. He earned almost $200 000 on cryptocurrency trading, but faked the source of income.

Recall, that now in South Korea there is a large-scale campaign to tighten regulation of the cryptocurrency sphere. So, banks of the country can no longer provide services to cryptocurrency exchanges, who do not comply with the KYC and AML rules. Besides, regulators require, so that local exchanges remove certain cryptocurrencies from their sites, which, according to the regulator, do not meet the requirements for transparency of transactions.