Lee Jung-hoon, the previous chair of the South Korean cryptocurrency trade Bithumb, was found not responsible on Jan. 3 by the thirty fourth Division of the Felony Settlement of the Seoul Central District Courtroom.

Jung-Hoon was on trial underneath accusations of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment Of Particular Financial Crimes because of fraud.

The case has been ongoing since October 2018, when the previous chairman allegedly defrauded 100 billion received ($70 million) throughout negotiations for the acquisition of Bithumb from Kim Byung-gun, chairman of the beauty surgical procedure firm BK Group.

Jung-hoon may’ve confronted an 8-year sentence had he been discovered responsible. In keeping with the native press, in its official response to the ruling, Bithumb mentioned it respects the court docket’s choice.

The trade additionally clarified that it’s underneath “skilled managers” and the previous chairman will not be concerned in present operations.

Virtually per week previous to the ruling, on Dec. 30 Bithumb’s largest shareholder govt Park Mo was discovered lifeless after he obtained allegations of embezzlement and manipulation of inventory costs.

South Korea investigates crypto exchanges for itemizing native tokens

These developments adopted a choice by Singaporean courts again in Aug. 2022, which discovered Byung-gun responsible of promoting BXA tokens with out the consent of Jung-hoon.

The ruling ordered him to return all proceeds from the sale of BXA again to the Singapore-based group BTHMB.

Later in October 2022, Jung-hoon did not attend a parliamentary listening to through the Terra ecosystem turmoil, citing a psychological well being dysfunction.

Bithumb was one among thecompanies raided by South Korean authorities within the aftermath of the Terra Luna collapse.

After the collapse, exchanges in South Korea created an emergency system as a preventative measure in case of a function Terra-style incident. To make sure compliance with native laws, all native exchanges should now listing tokens based mostly on the identical pointers.