South Korea’s leading cryptocurrency exchange bethumb has reportedly been raided a second time by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Intelligent Crime Investigation Unit.
According to the Seoul Newspaper, authorities entered Bithumb’s headquarters and seized evidence relating to a $25 million fraud investigation, linked to the sale of the BXA tokens that were supposed to be listed on the exchange, but never were.
Bithumb allegedly sold over 30 billion won ($25 million) worth of BXA tokens ot investors, and was set to list the token as part of an acquisition deal from Singapore-based platform BTHMB. BTHMB was acquiring a 51% stake in the cryptocurrency exchange, but defaulted on its last payment.
To investors, the tokens were sold for 150 to 300 KRW ($0.13 to $0.25) each, and a total of 300 participants invested over $25 million into the token sale. As time went by and the BXA token was not listed on Bithumb, it kept losing value to the point each token is now worth 3 KRW ($0.0026)
As a result some investors are said to have lost millions in the deal, and Bithumb’s chairman, Lee Jung-hoon, has been accused of fraud and illicitly moving funds overseas. Bithumb’s offices were raided for the first time last Wednesday over the same case.
This raid reportedly saw authorities target the offices relating to Bithumb Holdings, the parent company of Bithumb Korea, which operates the cryptocurrency trading platform.
Featured image via Unsplash.
