A former senior police officer in Seoul, South Korea, has been sentenced to six years in prison and fined approximately $77,000 for accepting bribes totaling around $82,000. The officer, who was responsible for investigating cryptocurrency fraud cases, accepted payments from individuals under investigation to influence probes.
A former senior police officer in Seoul was sentenced to six years in prison and fined 100 million won (approximately $77,000) for accepting bribes. The officer, identified only as **”Person A”**, accepted roughly $82,000 in cash and “entertainment fees” from members of an organization he was investigating between December 2023 and March 2024.
According to a court statement cited in a local report, the officer thought his authority was power and accepted money without guilt. “This is an act that greatly undermines the fairness and appropriateness of the job and social trust,” the court stated, adding that “the guilt is heavy and the possibility of condemnation is very high.”
The officer was introduced to the subjects of his investigation by a law firm office manager, “Person B”. This individual received a prison sentence of two and a half years and was fined approximately $34,000 for their role in the bribery scheme.
This sentencing is the latest in a series of crypto-related incidents in South Korea. Authorities recently handled criminal complaints involving payments in cryptocurrency for “private revenge” attacks ordered through messaging apps. In a separate financial mishap, a national tax service inadvertently published images of crypto wallet seed phrases, exposing $4.8 million in tokens at face value.
Further issues include over $1.4 million in Bitcoin going missing from police custody due to improper storage. A major cryptocurrency exchange also erroneously distributed billions of dollars in Bitcoin due to a system flaw, though most funds were recovered. These events have prompted the country’s finance minister to pledge major reforms for the governmental handling of digital assets.
