According to BlockBeats, on November 13, Yonhap News Agency reported that the South Korean police cracked a major fraud case. The main suspect was a YouTuber with 620,000 subscribers. He lured more than 15,000 investors to participate in cryptocurrency transactions by falsely advertising high returns. The amount involved was as high as 213 million US dollars. The police have arrested 12 suspects and applied for the confiscation of 22 bitcoins.
It is reported that Mr. A, a YouTuber with 620,000 subscribers, is suspected of receiving 325.6 billion won from 15,304 people in the name of investment funds by selling and issuing 28 virtual assets from December 2021 to March last year. The police explained that this is the largest token investment fraud case in history.
In addition, Mr. A established a separate holding company that owned 6 quasi-investment advisory companies and 10 sales companies, with responsibilities divided into general and intermediate management, token issuance, market manipulation, DB supply, token sales, and money laundering.
Then, they used more than 9 million mobile phone numbers obtained through YouTube lectures and advertisements to make random calls, saying "20 times the original amount", "an opportunity to change your destiny", "even if you have to sell your apartment and loan to buy coins", etc. This sentence encouraged investment.
It was found that 6 of the 28 currencies they sold were independently issued and then listed on overseas exchanges through brokers. It was later discovered that they raised the price by buying them themselves and then sold them to investors.
For the remaining 22 sales, although not self-issued, there was little information and low trading volume in Korea, so they were found to have little practical value.