▲ Cryptocurrency (The photo above is not related to the contents of the article.)
A group of individuals who pocketed hundreds of millions of won by artificially inflating the prices of meme coins using fake positive news and then dumping their holdings all at once has been sentenced to prison in the first trial.
Yesterday (July 23), the 11th Criminal Division of the Seoul Southern District Court (Presiding Judge Jang Chan) held a sentencing hearing for influencer Park (27), and accomplices Lee (34) and Lee (20), who were indicted on charges of violating the Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users.
The court sentenced Park to four years in prison and an order of forfeiture of approximately 224 million won, and sentenced Lee, who managed the official social media accounts, to two years and six months in prison and an order of forfeiture of approximately 45.2 million won.
Another accomplice named Lee was sentenced to three years in prison with a five-year probation period.
The court also ordered forfeiture of approximately 75.4 million won and the confiscation of seized virtual assets.
Presiding Judge Jang reprimanded them, stating, "The crime in this case is a serious offense that undermines the fairness and trust of the virtual asset market, and innocent investors who suffered damages are petitioning for strict punishment."
However, the judge added, "We considered the fact that the defendants readily admitted to their crimes and showed remorse, as well as the fact that they have no prior records of punishment for similar offenses."
In the case of the accomplice who received probation, the court took into account that although initially denying the crime, he soon admitted to it, actively cooperated with the investigation, and was only 19 years old at the time of the crime.
They are accused of issuing meme coins in January and February of last year, artificially spiking their prices by promoting fake positive news, and then selling them off all at once to rake in illegal profits worth approximately 400 million won.
They inflated the number of followers on the official social media accounts of the issued coins to make it appear as though there was high investor interest. In reality, while holding onto most of the coin supply themselves, they distributed the coins across multiple virtual asset wallets to lure general investors into buying.
In particular, Park, who had thousands of followers, posed as a disinterested third party and posted messages on social media recommending coin purchases with claims such as "You can make 300 times your money," according to investigations.
The coins created by the group skyrocketed by up to 1,011 times in price within 26 hours, drawing purchases from about 6,000 people.
As they subsequently dumped their holdings all at once, 256 investors suffered losses amounting to roughly 900 million won.
Investigations revealed that the group started the crime with about 10 million won and pocketed illicit gains of approximately 400 million won within 30 hours.
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