Crypto fugitive busted in Seoul after tossing cigarette
Police in South Korea have arrested a 60-year-old fugitive behind a $13 million crypto scam after he was stopped for tossing a cigarette butt and tried to bribe his way out of further questioning.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced today that, on Wednesday, authorities stopped a man in Seoul’s Gwanak District after he tried to run away from a cigarette he’d just discarded.
Local outlets report that the man, identified only by his surname “A,” pleaded with police to “let me go just this once” while trying to hail a taxi.
The man refused to give up his ID and told the officers, “I will give you money.”
He then tried to flee the scene and was arrested. After subsequent questioning, investigators discovered that the careless smoker was also behind a 17.7 billion won ($12.6 million) crypto scam that defrauded roughly 1,300 people between 2018 and 2019.
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Another crypto criminal who was unexpectedly caught by police was James Zhong. In 2012, Zhong stole 50,000 bitcoin (BTC), now worth $5.6 billion, from the criminal marketplace Silk Road and stashed the loot in physical wallets around his house.
Unfortunately for him, his house was burgled in 2019 and after calling the police to report the theft, the Internal Revenue Service became involved and his assets were traced back to the Silk Road hack.
He was arrested and sentenced in 2023 to one year in prison.
The man arrested this week faces 10 charges, including assault and fraud, and has been on the run since 2020. Following his arrest, he’s now in the custody of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office.
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