Showing posts with label south korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label south korea. Show all posts

Terraform Founder Do Kwon sits in 'Dangerous and Overcrowded' Montengro Prison....

Do Kwon Arrest

Do Kwon, the founder of the now-defunct Terra USD (UST) and Luna (LUNA) cryptocurrencies, could face up to five years in a Montenegrin prison before being extradited to South Korea or the United States.

Kwon is currently under quarantine for COVID-19 and will soon be sharing a cell with other inmates in a Montenegrin prison, according to a report by a local lawyer.

Montenegro Prisons a 'Hell On Earth'...

However, the prisons in Montenegro are notoriously overcrowded, and inmates are often subjected to aggressive treatment by prison staff.

Amnesty International has raised concerns about the conditions and rights of detainees in Montenegrin prisons, including the lack of independent investigations into ill-treatment.

The cell Kwon will be occupying is only 8 square meters and is usually filled with between 10 and 11 people, leaving no room for a bed.

Inmates are only allowed a 30-minute walk in the prison yard each day and can only purchase limited items like cigarettes and coffee.

Montenegro now the first of 3 nations that will need to take turns locking up Kwon...

Kwon's initial arrest in Montenegro was due to presenting false documents, is a crime that carries a penalty of up to five years.

While both South Korea and the United States have requested Kwon's extradition, Montenegro has yet to make a decision.

If Montenegro decides to pursue it, this could be the first of three nations aiming for him to serve time in their prisons.

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk 
Breaking Crypto News 

After Insisting They Have The Wrong Person, Fingerprints CONFIRM Luna Founder Turned Fugitive Do Kwon ARRESTED!

Do Kwon Arrest

Officials in Montenegro have arrested Luna founder Do Kwan. 

First detained when officials at the Podgorica airport noticed his false documents, the man in custody spent hours denying he was the South Korean fugitive, until South Korean officials provided fingerprint records that were used to confirm his identity. 

"The former 'cryptocurrency king' who is behind losses of more than 40 billion dollars, was detained at the Podgorica airport with falsified documents, and the same is claimed by South Korea, the USA and Singapore. We are waiting for official confirmation of identity" Tweeted Montenegro's Minister of Interior.

Then minutes before this story was published, Interpol confirmed to us that a positive ID has been made - the person in custody IS Do Kwon.

Along with him another man stating he was his 'assistant' going by the name 'Han' was also arrested, there is no word on the actual identity of this person. 

What's Next for the Luna Founder?

While charged with crimes in both the US and South Korea, US prosecutors have said that they will seek Kwon’s extradition to the United States where he is charged with 8 federal violations including securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud, conspiracy, and market manipulation.

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Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk / Breaking Crypto News

South Korea Seriously Loves Crypto - Average Trader Increased Their Holdings By 65% Over The Past Year!



South Korea took advantage of the bear market like no place else!

According to a survey, South Koreans who've bought cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have invested more than six-thousand dollars on average. The Korea Financial Investors Protection Foundation polled 25-hundred adults last December and found that seven-point-four percent of them own some cryptocurrency,an increase of one-percentage point from a year before.

The average investment per person also increased by 64 percent, hitting $6697. The biggest investors were people in their fifities, who had snapped up an average of 11-thousand dollars each, followed by those in their forties and thirties.

Respondents who have not invested in crypto seem unlikely to change their mind, though, citing volatile prices and the risk of hacking.

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South Korea's biggest blockchain week is happening for it's 2nd year - January 14th-18th, 2019.

Guest speakers include:  Binance Co-founder Yi He, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, NEO CEO Da Hongfei, Bitcoin.com founder Roger Ver, Stellar Co-founder Jed McCaleb, Lisk CEO Max Kordek, Blockchain Capital Co-Founder P Bart Stephens and many more!

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● Well-Organized Business Tour will lead you enter quality projects, tech-companies, crypto funds and exchanges offices and build strong connections with them.

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Information provided via press release


South Korea issues cryptocurrency announcement: No ban! But a new tax...

The market has been a roller coaster since news that South Korean politicians were considering a cryptocurrency ban in the country, which controls about 15% of the cryptocurrency market.

Just announce today however - no ban!

But there will be a new tax.  Imposed on exchanges is now 22% corporate and 2.2% local income tax, retroactively. So South Korean exchanges will be beginning 2018 with a bill due from 2017.

It's expected these additional costs will be passed on to users existing fees, so it's reasonable to expect less trading coming from South Korea - but at least they're still in the market.

Another part of the government plan: exchanges must share their users info with authorities. Similar to the agreement between the IRS and Coinbase, where after challenging them in court, Coinbase lost and were ordered to turn over customer data for any account with over $20,000 in actvity.
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Author: Adam Lee
Asia News Desk

South Korean corruption - did government officials sell off their coins before announcing possible ban?


South Korean news outlet ChoSun is reporting that SK Financial Supervisory Service has confirmed an investigation has been launched.

The claim is that members and employees within the Financial Services Commission sold off their cryptocurrency assets, hours and minutes before news they were looking into possibly banning cryptocurrency was released to the press.

Director of the Office of the Prime Minister, Hong Nam-ki, said;

"As far as internal transactions are concerned, there are one or two cases of public servants, and they asked me to investigate the facts".

Unfortunately, even if it's the worst case scenario - there wasn't a crime, as laws do not cover virtual currencies the same as cash or stocks.

Still, while not illegal - it is a violation of internal policy.  However, they have not said what the punishment for violating these policies would be if the investigation does find evidence confirming the claims.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle News Desk

South Korean citizens rise up to protect their cryptocurrency rights!

South Korean citizens have a full force movement going to protect their cryptocurrency trading rights.

Their online petition has now gathered over 250,000+ signatures, which states in part:

"You think you protect the people, but the people think that the government takes away our dreams." 

They are vowing any politician voting for restrictions against cryptocurrencies won't be re-elected next time they go to the voting booths.

In another strange twist to the story, the Korean government is now saying they may create their own cryptocurrency, speaking to Reuters, Lee Ju-yeol, governor of Bank of Korea said;

 "We have started looking at virtual currency from a long-term standpoint, as central banks could start issuing digital currencies in the future. This sort of research has begun at the Bank of International Settlements and we are part of that research" 

It is estimated roughly 15% of the market value is in the hands of South Korean investors.

South Korea has said they will have an official announcement - possibly as soon as tomorrow!

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk

Why South Korean cryptocurrency investors are in a panic - and how it's effecting all of us...

South Korea has played a major role in the cryptocurrency boom that often goes unnoticed to those of us on the English speaking side of things. 

They have their own corner of the crypto world - with their own forums, chat rooms and their own exchanges - where prices can even vary greatly from US/EU exchange rates.

But nonetheless - the volume of money they bring in effects us all. They account for about 15% of the entire market.

Today however, our crypto friends in South Korea are in a panic.  Yesterday their justice minister, Park Sang-ki announced "regulators are preparing legislation to halt cryptocurrency trading" that sent the markets into a nose dive.

So why are their politicians looking to crack down?  It appears what first drew government attention is lack security at two South Korean exchanges.

First, there was the Bithumb hack in July - over 30,000 victims losing their Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Then came YoBit, forced to shut down after suffering two major attacks in one year.

Throw in your standard "it's a bubble" fears on top of these - and we get some very worried politicians.

But democracy, and South Korean politicians fearing backlash at the voting booths may save cryptocurrency trading in the nation.  Chief security strategist at AsTech, a cyber security firm explained to Infosecurity Mag:

“This ban, though, would impact a growing number of citizens and could cause a huge backlash against the government, both immediately and in any voting situation. At this point, it may be too early to guess at what a ban on cryptocurrency trading would do to South Korea, either economically or politically, but as the number of South Koreans who use cryptocurrencies increases, this issue will become more challenging to address at a national level.”

With youth unemployment rates 3x higher than the national average, playing the cryptocurrency markets has taken the place of a job for many young South Koreans.

As of today, an online petition against the proposed ban has over 120,000 signatures - and even crashed the website earlier.

So, that's where things stand now, we're watching closely for future developments. 

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk