The executives of UPbit, one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, have been formally charged by the country’s prosecutors.
Specifically, the senior Upbit executives including the founder Song Chi-Hyung were charged with making fraudulent transactions between September and December last year by prosecutors in Seoul.
They were also alleged to have inflated trading volume figures by using a fabricated corporate account to make falsified orders. This was with the intention of attracting more clients to the South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges.
The case was brought to the country’s prosecution by the Financial Services Commision (FSA).
As part of the investigation into the proceedings, the Korea Times reports two senior executives from Dunamu and one Upbit employee have been indicted, but not detained
According to prosecutors, UPBit has also sold 11,550 BTC to about 26,000 users, which helped it earn 150 billion KRW ($133.5 million).
“I’m worried about investors who may lose money in this market because of exchanges like Upbit. We need a way to make the market and the industry fair and transparent,” Korean Times quoted an FSA official.
