Three individuals were arrested in South Korea over possible links to illegal crypto activities related to a probe of «abnormal» FX transactions totaling billions of dollars.
South Korean authorities arrested three individuals as part of its investigation of $3.4 billion of «abnormal» FX transactions, according to a «Bloomberg» report citing a text message from a district prosecutor’s office. The charges were connected to allegations of setting up paper companies, operating a crypto trading business without registration, false data submissions to banks and substantial foreign currency transfers abroad.
The arrested people were linked to a firm that reportedly sent 400 billion won worth of funds overseas from a Seoul branch of local lender Woori Bank to earn profits from arbitrage.
Woori and Shinhan
According to South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service, 1.6 trillion won of unusual transactions took place at five branches of Woori Bank between May 2021 and June 2022. Similarly, 2.5 trillion won of unusual transactions were detected at 11 branches of rival Shinhan Bank between February 2021 and July 2022.
Although Asia’s fourth largest economy is a leading adopter of cryptocurrencies, confidence has been recently hit following the downfall of stablecoin TerraUSD and sister token Luna, both created by local entrepreneur Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs.
