South Korea's police have summoned Bithumb's chairman, Lee Jung Hoon, for alleged fraud, a local news outlet Yonhap has learned.
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Lee is reportedly suspected of large-scale fraud up to $25 million tied to the exchange's private sale of the BXA tokens. According to the media, Lee sold tokens but did not list the asset on the trading platform, which led to investment losses.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency also suspect BK Group chairman Kim Byung-Gun for alleged fraud, however, there is no investigation against him.
At the beginning of September, the largest Korean cryptocurrency exchange had been seized by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for alleged fraud.
The pre-sale is linked to an agreement dated as of October 2018, when Singapore-based BK Global Consortium had signed a deal to buy a majority share of BTC Holding Co. which is Bithumb's largest investor.
The plan was to form a new publicly traded entity called the Blockchain Exchange Alliance (BXA) — with the BXA token listed on the exchange.
However, in November 2019, the alliance shifted in payment responsibilities, which triggered the fall of BXA's value.
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