Key Takeaways
- A Seoul court acquitted influencer ‘Jonber King’ in a $253M crypto fraud and token manipulation case.
- Judges ruled prosecutors failed to prove white papers or fake proposals directly caused investor losses.
- The acquittal comes as South Korea deploys AI tools to detect and curb crypto market manipulation.
‘Coin King Jonber Kim’ Acquitted in Massive Crypto Fraud Case
A Seoul court has found a Korean influencer who led a massive $253 million crypto scam not guilty of financial crimes.
On October 15, in one of the largest crypto cases in Korea, Park, a 45-year-old influencer known as “Coin King Jonber Kim,” was acquitted of alleged involvement in the pump-and-dump of two cryptocurrency schemes. “Jonber King” was famous for showing his wealth on social media channels, showing luxury cars and claiming his fortune was made using digital assets.
Prosecutors argued that Park was the mastermind behind the issuance of two digital tokens, Podo coin and ATube, making false promises to investors and manipulating the values associated with each token. These schemes allowed Park to siphon $253 million in funds directly from these activities, defrauding a large investor base.
For these alleged crimes, prosecutors sought a 20-year prison sentence and the seizure of over $14 million from Park’s estate.
Nonetheless, the Seoul Southern District Court declared that the evidence presented by prosecutors was insufficient, as it failed to establish a direct relationship between the actions carried out by Park and the influence on coin prices.
While the court found that offering fake proposals in white paper documents was deceptive, it could not establish whether these documents alone prompted the purchase of the digital currencies.
“Even among the victims whose statements were confirmed, there are cases where they purchased based on blogs, Youtube, communities, or acquaintances’ introductions rather than white papers or the defendants’ materials, or where the purchasing circumstances were not revealed,” the court concluded.
South Korea has ramped up its action on crypto fraud. In August, the same court issued a 15-year sentence against Jeong Sang-ho, former CEO of Delio, a digital asset bank declared insolvent in November 2024. The court found that Jeong embezzled $49.2 million in customer assets.
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service has also implemented AI technology to detect and stop cryptocurrency price manipulation schemes across the country’s largest crypto venues. The system can allegedly detect several price changes that commonly occur when criminals are carrying out these strategies.
