Pro Golfer ‘Crypto Listing Bribery’ Trial Begins in South Korea
Tim Alper is a British journalist and features writer who has worked at Cryptonews.com since 2018. He has written for media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He has also worked...
The trial of the South Korean former pro golfer Ahn Sung-hyun began on September 10, with the sports star accused of colluding to list altcoins on the crypto exchange Bithumb.
Per Maeil Kyungjae, the trial got underway at a branch of the Seoul Southern District Court. Ahn is accused of fraud and breach of trust under the terms of the Act for Specific Economic Crimes.
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Officials think that Ahn “received tens of billions of won in bribes” from an unnamed “domestic coin issuer” under “the pretext of helping Bithumb list” one or more tokens.
Prosecutors launched a case against Ahn last year. They think he and Lee Sang-jun, then the CEO of Bithumb Holdings, conspired to list token(s) on the exchange in exchange for bribes.
Ahn turned pro in 2005. He later went on to become part of the coaching setup at South Korea’s national golf team.
However, he is better known as the husband of the former FinK.L member Sung Yu-ri. FinK.L was a chart-topping “first-generation” K-pop group. Sung has since gone on to become a top-billing actress.
The controversy surrounding Ahn began in October 2022, when investigative journalists revealed he was the owner of an imported car used by the reclusive investor Kang Jong-hyun.
Kang is thought to be the shadowy “real” owner of Bithumb, and has allegedly bought firms with smaller stakes in the crypto exchange.
Officials think Kang and his associates manipulated altcoin prices on the platform to
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