Head of illegal cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea sentenced to five years for money laundering

According to ChainCatcher, reported by DLNews, the Daegu District Court in South Korea sentenced a 41-year-old responsible for an illegal cryptocurrency exchange to five years in prison. The individual used USDT to launder $1 million for an overseas voice scam gang. A 35-year-old employee of the exchange was simultaneously sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.

The criminal gang contacted victims via Telegram, disguising themselves as law enforcement officers and family members to trick victims into transferring funds. They then quickly exchanged the funds into USDT, completing the entire process in less than an hour, preventing banks from freezing the accounts in time. Judge Lee Young-chul described this as a “malicious crime” and pointed out that the defendant took no measures to compensate the victims. South Korean legislator Kim Sung-joon called for strengthened regulation of stablecoins to address new types of foreign exchange crimes.