South Korean authorities seize $3.2m worth of crypto from fake crypto exchanges

South Korean authorities have seized approximately $3.2 million worth of Ethereum from a group operating fake cryptocurrency exchanges. The police raided a syndicate that ran fraudulent foreign crypto exchanges, collecting hundreds of billions of won by charging platform fees and manually exchanging funds via a separate service. Two crypto exchange firms and three operators were arrested for violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act and the Electronic Financial Transactions Act.

The suspects attempted to launder the seized crypto assets to evade detection. Authorities tracked and confiscated about 12.4 billion won in assets held under other names, including 1,144 Ethereum and luxury goods worth 200 million won.

The illegal operation transacted nearly 943.4 billion won (around $694.5 million) through crypto exchange fraud techniques, converting Korean won into USDT etc, which were then offshored or transferred abroad.

Prosecutors emphasized their commitment to cracking down on such money laundering and illegal currency flows to uphold the principle that crime should not be profitable.

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