The Seoul authorities have seized over $20 million in cryptocurrencies from hundreds of tax evaders, The Korea Times reports. The local tax watchdog has reportedly found the cryptocurrencies of 1,566 individuals and heads of companies in three cryptocurrency exchanges and seized over $22 million in cryptocurrencies from 676 of them.
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The local authorities claim they are "continually being asked" by tax evaders to refrain from selling their cryptocurrencies as they will pay their taxes.
"We believe the taxpayers expect the value of their cryptocurrencies to increase further due to the recent spike in the price of cryptocurrencies and have determined they will gain more from paying their delinquent taxes and having the seizure released," the authorities added.
The authorities highlighted they will also go after the cryptocurrencies of the remaining 890 people who had been identified. Seoul's raid against cryptocurrency investors comes as Eun Seong-soo, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, warned that the country might close over 200 cryptocurrency exchanges in Q3, 2021, if they do not follow the regulations.
Eun also added, the government has no plans to protect cryptocurrency investors despite the fact it is going to tax them.
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