Court Clears Haru Invest CEO of $650M Fraud Charges

A South Korean court docket has acquitted Haru Make investments CEO Lee Hyung-soo of fraud prices tied to the lack of roughly $650 million in crypto.

The fifteenth Prison Division of the Seoul Southern District Courtroom delivered the ruling, led by Presiding Decide Yang Hwan-seung.

Decide Yang’s Ruling

Native media reports revealed that the court docket discovered that whereas administration had been negligent, the prosecution had not confirmed that Mr. Hyung-soo’s actions constituted prison deception.

“It’s troublesome to disclaim the explanation for the negligence of administration, however it’s exhausting to find out that it corresponds to deception, which is topic to punishment beneath prison regulation,” the decide acknowledged.

The chief had been indicted beneath the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Particular Financial Crimes for allegedly defrauding 1000’s of shoppers of almost $650 million.

Two co-defendants, Park and Track, who served as co-CEOs of Blockcrafters, have been additionally discovered not responsible. Nonetheless, the corporate’s COO, Kang Mo, was convicted of embezzlement. He obtained a suspended two-year jail sentence, three years of probation, and 120 hours of group service.

The court docket sided with the protection on three main factors, together with the sustainability of the enterprise, whether or not its promotional act was misleading, and whether or not there was negligence. The decide famous that Hyung-soo had operated a market-neutral technique utilizing buyer property and that the collapse of exterior entities like FTX contributed to the platform’s downfall.

Additional, the court docket acknowledged that Park and Track had personally invested roughly 5.5 billion received ($3.85 million), whereas the Haru Make investments CEO and his household deposited round 7.4 billion received ($5.2 million) into the corporate. These actions have been interpreted as indicators that the trio genuinely believed within the sustainability of the enterprise.

The protection added that even after the suspension of withdrawals, the accused tried to search out methods to recuperate the remaining property from working funds and distributed a few of them to clients. Concerning curiosity payouts, the court docket decided that returns have been primarily based on precise efficiency with cheap changes.

Ties to FTX Losses

Hyung-soo’s troubles began in June 2023, when his firm abruptly suspended all deposits and withdrawals, citing “probably deceptive data” from its consignment operator. This motion triggered widespread panic amongst traders who couldn’t entry their funds, with the crypto yield agency closing its Seoul workplaces quickly after.

A day later, crypto lending agency Delio, which claimed to have deposited funds in Haru, additionally halted withdrawals. Following considerations raised by customers of each platforms, South Korean regulation enforcement authorities began investigating Haru Make investments and Delio, imposing journey bans on their high management and seizing firm property.

Whilst Hyung-soo denied allegations of a rug pull, he and his two associates, Park and Track, have been arrested for mismanaging $826 million in person funds. Throughout their fraud trial, the Haru CEO was stabbed within the neck by an enraged former buyer, who now faces as much as 10 years in jail for tried homicide.

Hyung-soo’s agency was declared bankrupt in November 2024, with the newest chapter within the saga seeing him unburdened of any guilt within the enterprise’s fall. Whereas he and his fellow executives have been accused of incorrectly informing clients that no losses occurred following the FTX chapter, the decide dominated that they’d been misled by an exterior fund supervisor recognized solely as Mr. Bang, who had falsely claimed to have moved funds earlier than the FTX fallout and promised to cowl losses personally.

Regardless of this, the court docket criticized Haru’s oversight of Bang and acknowledged potential contractual breaches of their obligation of excellent religion. Nonetheless, it concluded that these didn’t quantity to prison fraud.