Several of South Korea’s top crypto exchanges have found themselves in hot water, with executives at a couple of exchanges facing criminal charges and jail time.According to a news report on the Korean website Blockinpress, the CEO of Komid, a Korean crypto exchange, has received a three-year prison sentence for committing fraud against investors by artificially inflating the exchange’s actual trading volume. Another company executive also received a sentence of two years for his role in these crimes.The report claims that Komid fabricated over 5 million accounts to falsify trade orders and drum up fake volume. The scam allowed the executives to net roughly $44M (50 billion won) in fees from trades that were executed against the fake orders. This figure doesn’t take into account the business the exchange might have generated from extra, legitimate customers they might have attracted by posting these fraudulent figures.The judge stated that CEO Hyunsuk Choi “has repeatedly committed fraud for many unspecified number of victims for a long period of time,” and expressed concern about possible ramifications on public confidence in the industry.Komid is not the only Korean company to have been involved in scandal recently, as UPbit also saw its executives arrested on similar charges of artificial inflation.As reported in the Korea Times, these arrests involved not only the direct operators of the exchange it...
