After investing their savings in a cryptocurrency that crashed, a couple hires a hit man to kill the woman who made them buy the cryptocurrency.
South Korea, Asia’s crossroads for cryptocurrencies, is experiencing an increase in crime related to the sector, which worries authorities and individuals alike, such as a murder that recently shocked the country, with a former spy armed with ketamine as the protagonist.
After losing more than a billion won (€706,000) invested in a cryptocurrency that has since been removed, the couple hires Lee Kyung-woo, an alleged ex-secret agent turned assassin. They have to kill the woman who encouraged them to buy these cryptocurrencies and steal her digital assets in the process.
On March 29, the victim, 48, was kidnapped in the heart of Seoul in the posh Gangnam district, drugged, ordered to provide passwords to her digital wallets, and then murdered. His body was then buried 140 km away, in the countryside.
Ketamine, the murder weapon used by Mr Lee, came from his wife, a nurse at a plastic surgery clinic who knew “his criminal intentions” at the time, according to court documents obtained by AFP. For his actions, Mr Lee was eventually sentenced to life in prison in October by the courts of a country known to be safe, drug-free and where violent murders are rare.
“It is difficult to measure the fear and pain the victim must have felt when she was suddenly kidnapped by unknown persons in the middle of Seoul… and taken to the hills of Daejeon to die,” Kim Seung-jeong wrote in his judgment. , judge of the Seoul Central District Court.
Crypto will crash
Like this murder, South Korea has recently been rocked by several cryptocurrency-related cases, including spectacular implosions that have shaken privacy confidence and drawn the attention of South Korean authorities.
Local officials have expressed concern about rising crime in the area, leading to the creation of a new specialist investigation unit this year.
In May 2022, the collapse of the value of two cryptocurrencies developed by South Korean businessman Do Kwon, TerraUSD and Luna, presented as more stable than other currencies of the same type, caused a shock wave in the sector and led to losses in the order of tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars.
Indeed, according to experts, Do Kwon relied on a fraudulent financial arrangement. The fugitive Terraform founder was eventually arrested in Montenegro, where he is still awaiting extradition to the United States or South Korea.
But it’s another cryptocurrency that underlies this violent murder: pure. Based in Seychelles and administered by a South Korean, the pure digital currency is said to be based on a system using blockchain technology – a decentralized virtual ledger.
Like the incriminated couple, it was in this cryptocurrency that Mr. Lee decided to invest his savings. But the man will eventually experience ruin: at the beginning of 2021, he will lose a net 95% of his value.
In May, just over a month after the murder, the cryptocurrency was delisted. According to the authorities, “bad information” provided to investors partly explains the decision. The South Korean at the helm will be arrested in November for fraud and stock market manipulation.
“Illegal Methods”
A victim of a clean sweep, Mr. Lee therefore convinces himself to use “any means necessary” to find the money, claiming to his clients that he is a former agent who has returned from several missions in North Korea, according to court documents.
He tells the vengeful couple that he can “solve (their) problems (…) by resorting to illegal methods”. With his accomplices, Mr. Lee uses ketamine to temporarily incapacitate the victim and kidnap him, before futilely attempting to extort his usernames and passwords and steal his digital assets.
That’s when the fatal dose was administered, leading to “ketamine poisoning” of the victim, court documents allege. The masterminds of the murder, Yoo Sang-won and Hwang Eun-hee, were sentenced to eight and six years in prison.
Two of Mr. Lee’s accomplices, who kidnapped and killed the victim under his watch, must serve life for one and 25 years for the other. As for the wife of the hitman who supplied the ketamine, she got five years in prison.