Key Takeaways
South Korean police named Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won a bribery suspect after a second raid on the cryptocurrency alternate.Bithumb allegedly gained an unfair edge as MP Kim focused its rival Dunamu on monopoly points.Subsequent, Seoul police will summon aide A and others to unpack the 2024 hiring solicitation claims.
Allegations of Job Solicitation
South Korean police have detained the CEO of cryptocurrency alternate Bithumb as a suspect in an ongoing bribery investigation involving allegations of preferential hiring for the son and an aide of an unbiased lawmaker, officers stated. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Company’s Public Crime Investigation Unit is reportedly investigating Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won on prices together with bribery.
Lee is accused of shifting ahead with the hiring of unbiased Rep. Kim Byung-ki’s second son after receiving an employment request from the lawmaker. The investigation gained momentum after police obtained a press release from a former aide to Kim, who alleged that the lawmaker and the Bithumb CEO met at a restaurant in Mapo, Seoul, in November 2024, the place the job solicitation allegedly happened. The son later labored at Bithumb for about six months beginning in January 2025.
Investigators suspect that Kim, who served on the Nationwide Meeting’s Political Affairs Committee, might have tailor-made his legislative actions to learn Bithumb in alternate for his son’s employment. Authorities are trying into whether or not Kim deliberately focused Bithumb’s major competitor, Dunamu, by focusing legislative stress on that firm’s market monopoly points.
Moreover, police are investigating separate allegations that Kim pressured Bithumb to rent one other considered one of his congressional aides, recognized solely as “A,” who has reportedly been employed on the cryptocurrency alternate since September of final 12 months. Police are checking whether or not this aide’s later advisory function at Bithumb was linked to the broader alleged quid professional quo.
The scope of the investigation expanded on June 8 when police executed a second search-and-seizure warrant at Bithumb’s headquarters within the Gangnam district of Seoul, formally designating CEO Lee—beforehand handled as a witness—as a suspect on allegations of providing bribes.
Throughout an preliminary raid on Bithumb’s places of work in February, police had listed Consultant Kim as the first suspect. Kim faces a broader corruption probe involving 13 separate allegations, together with claims of accepting money funds from native council members and the misuse of a company card by his partner. He has been summoned by authorities a number of instances as a part of the months-long investigation.
Bithumb has denied any wrongdoing, stating that its hiring course of was correct and compliant with laws. The corporate additionally maintained that the previous aide’s advisory function was casual and fully unrelated to the employment of Kim’s son.
Following an evaluation of the supplies seized throughout the newest raid, police are anticipated to summon the aide and different concerned events for questioning concerning the circumstances of their employment and whether or not they had been conscious of the job solicitation.
