'Jonber Kim' Acquitted in First Trial Over KRW 340 Billion Scam Coin Price Manipulation

Park, a 45-year-old widely known as "Jonber Kim" who was put on trial on charges of masterminding a scam coin price manipulation scheme involving around KRW 340 billion, has been found not guilty in his first trial.

Previously, prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison sentence and the forfeiture of approximately KRW 18.8 billion for Park.

Today, the Seoul Southern District Court acquitted Park, the mastermind behind the scam coin fraud, along with Han, a 42-year-old representative of the Podo Coin issuer "Enterblock," on charges including fraud and violations of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes.

Moon, the head of a coin platform developer related to the "Atuve" coin scheme, was also acquitted.

Enterblock CEO Han and affiliate Park were each sentenced to six months in prison with two years of probation and four months in prison with one year of probation, respectively, on charges of obstruction of business.

"Jonber Kim" Park has been accused of issuing and listing scam coins "Podo" and "Atuve," and swindling approximately KRW 80.9 billion and KRW 260 billion, respectively, from investors through methods such as false disclosures and price manipulation.

Han is accused of issuing the scam coin "Podo" in December 2020, inflating its price through false promotion and price manipulation, and selling it to general investors on exchanges to gain property profits of about KRW 21.6 billion.

He is also accused of conspiring with Park to fabricate documents for listing and submitting them to exchanges (obstruction of business).

The court ruled that their deceptive acts were not established, or even if acknowledged, it was difficult to prove a causal relationship with the misperceptions of the coin buyers.

The court determined that the submitted evidence alone was insufficient to show through what specific actions and processes they influenced coin prices, concluding that deceptive acts were not established regarding the price manipulation.

However, the court viewed that it did constitute a deceptive act when the defendants failed to properly disclose actual progress through Telegram chat rooms or "white papers," despite having no intention to use the coin sales proceeds for actual projects or substantially execute the projects.

At the same time, the court judged that this fact alone could not be seen as causing all victims to be misled into purchasing the coins.

"Among the victims, those whose statements could be confirmed are only a portion," the court explained, adding, "Even among the victims whose statements were confirmed, there are cases where they purchased based on blogs, YouTube, communities, or acquaintances' introductions rather than white papers or the defendants' materials, or where the purchasing circumstances were not revealed."

Furthermore, even for victims who purchased coins after reading white papers, the court considered it difficult to prove causality with the deceptive acts to the extent that no reasonable doubt remains.

Regarding the obstruction of business charges against Enterblock affiliate Park and Han, who submitted false materials to the cryptocurrency exchange Coinone during the coin listing maintenance review process, they were found guilty.

"The defendants interfered with the review work by submitting false evidentiary materials to the listing maintenance review personnel twice," the court explained as the reason for sentencing.

In addition, the court took into account the fact that the defendants acknowledged the factual relations related to the crime and their past criminal records.

"Jonber Kim" Park gained public recognition by flaunting his wealth on social media and online communities, posting pictures of ultra-expensive vehicles and claiming he made his fortune through the coin business.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.