Prosecutors arrest Haru Invest executives on charges of embezzlement (report)
Prosecutors said Monday that they have arrested and indicted three executives of cryptocurrency yield platform Haru Invest, including two co-CEOs.
The three are facing indictment by Seoul prosecutors on charges of embezzling about 1.1 trillion won, or about $826 million, in cryptocurrency from about 16,000 users.
Haru Invest executive arrested in Korea
According to Yonhap News, a local news agency, Haru Invest claimed that it entrusted most of its customer deposits to one individual, creating a misunderstanding that the funds were managed using ‘risk-free diversification investment techniques.’
The platform lured users with promises of returns of up to 12% through its Earn Plus product.
Authorities began investigating Haru Invest and cryptocurrency lender Delio, which suddenly stopped withdrawals on June 14, 2023. Delio cited the outage as a response to the sudden suspension of deposits and withdrawals at sister lending company Haru Invest earlier in the day.
A little over a week later, the Financial Services Commission confiscated all assets, other cold wallets, and ledgers owned by Delio’s customers and company.
The latest development follows Haru Invest’s latest update, where the company issued another statement saying it had no new information to share during the week. An announcement signed by CEO Hugo Lee was released by Xstart, saying that Haru had no updates on the ongoing investigation and overall situation following the arrest of B&S Holdings’ majority shareholder, Bang Jun-ho.
Haru Invest members, please check the notice. pic.twitter.com/EMToEY8Mr8
— Haruinvest (@haruinvest) February 5, 2024
Korea’s Cryptocurrency Environment
This arrest by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office’s Virtual Asset Crime Joint Investigation Team coincides with the strengthening of regulations on cryptocurrency lending in Korea, triggered by several serious failures last year.
In an important step to increase transparency and integrity in the public sector, the country’s senior civil servants will be mandated to disclose their cryptocurrency holdings under a new law announced by the Ministry of Personnel Management.
Meanwhile, major domestic cryptocurrency exchanges such as Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax announced plans to build a separate information system scheduled to be launched in June of the following year.
The article (Report) on Korean prosecutors arresting Haru Invest executive on embezzlement first appeared on Crypto Potato.
