{"id":73452,"date":"2023-02-02T09:52:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T07:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=73452"},"modified":"2025-09-09T14:12:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T11:12:56","slug":"media-reports-arrest-of-bithumb-owner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/media-reports-arrest-of-bithumb-owner\/","title":{"rendered":"Media reports arrest of Bithumb owner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In South Korea, the owner of the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, Kan Joon-hen, was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement and manipulating the share prices of several affiliated firms. Local media report <a href=\\\"https:\/\/news.jtbc.co.kr\/article\/article.aspx?news_id=NB12113195\\\">report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Journalists noted that a court issued the corresponding decision on February 2.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of January, the Seoul Prosecutor&#8217;s Office <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/media-bithumb-owner-placed-on-polices-wanted-list\">issued an arrest warrant<\/a> for Hen and placed him on the wanted list. According to investigators, his brother Ji En \u2014 head of the exchange&#8217;s subsidiaries Inbiogen and Bucket Studi \u2014 helped manipulate the shares by issuing convertible bonds.<\/p>\n<p>In October 2022, authorities conducted raids at the offices of the mentioned firms, as well as at the largest shareholder of Bithumb Holdings (34.2%) \u2014 the company Vidente.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of December, the vice-president of the latter was found dead. Journalist Colin Wu <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WuBlockchain\/status\/1608774791150071808\\\">stated<\/a> that Korean authorities also suspected him of corruption and financial malfeasance.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, police <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/police-seize-part-of-bithumb-holdings-shares-during-third-raid-in-a-month\">carried out a series of raids<\/a> at the offices of companies linked to the exchange in connection with a case of alleged fraud related to the $25 million BXA token sale. At the same time, law enforcement <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/police-seize-part-of-bithumb-holdings-shares-during-third-raid-in-a-month\">summoned for questioning<\/a> the then-CEO of Bithumb and the beneficiary of Bithumb Holdings, Lee Jong-hoon.<\/p>\n<p>Media reports said that Hoon was considered the real owner of the exchange. Under the charges of deceiving investors, he <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/former-bithumb-chief-faces-potential-prison-term\">faced up to eight years in prison<\/a>. However, he was later <a href=\\\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/118274\/former-bithumb-chairman-lee-jung-hoon-not-guilty-report\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"noreferrer noopener\\\">acquitted<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, the National Tax Service of South Korea <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/south-koreas-tax-authority-opens-investigation-into-bithumb\">initiated an investigation<\/a> into possible violations of tax law by Bithumb Korea, Bithumb Holdings and other affiliated entities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In South Korea, the owner of the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, Kan Joon-hen, was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement and manipulating the share prices of several affiliated firms. Local media report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[973,1323,1444,974],"class_list":["post-73452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bithumb","tag-investigations","tag-law-enforcement","tag-south-korea"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"19","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73454,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73452\/revisions\/73454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}