Bithumb to limit foreign members after July 13
January. 2. 2022
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2021-07-08 16:57
Bithumb to limit foreign members after July 13
| Lee Jeong-hoon, former chairman of Bithumb Korea and BIthumb Holdings Korea Times file |
Crypto exchange desperate to rehabilitate tarnished reputation
By Lee Kyung-min
A cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb said on Thursday he would deny membership to foreign customers whose identities cannot be verified through local mobile carriers, starting at 3 p.m. on July 13 (KST).
Membership will also be refused to foreign residents of Korea who do not have an Alien Registration Card (ARC), without which their application for mobile subscription will be refused.
These are part of the measures to strengthen the fight against money laundering involving digital assets, increasingly linked to international crimes.
The hastily curated announcement highlighting its compliance and customer protection efforts is aimed at deflecting growing customer complaints about the company’s mismanagement, as evidenced by the indictment two days earlier against its owner de facto Lee Jeong-hoon, 45, who faces fraud charges in the amount of more than 112 billion won ($ 100 million).
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The exchange plans to strengthen client identification and block access to those from countries that do not comply with international anti-money laundering protocols, including the Philippines, Malta, Haiti and South Sudan. .
The four countries were added to the list of “jurisdictions under increased surveillance” based on the decision taken at the June 2021 plenary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF publishes binding global standards to prevent the misuse of virtual assets for money laundering and terrorist financing.
Services were already blocked for those staying in all four countries, and re-membership requests from there will be denied. These measures are in place for 20 countries including North Korea and Iran.
The exchange said it was the first to set up an anti-money laundering center and works to prevent money laundering by reporting suspicious transactions and customer verification efforts.
He has partnered with OCTASolution and developed anti-money laundering and fraud detection systems designed to identify irregularities involving crypto exchange operators.
Meanwhile, the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office said Lee, the former chairman of Bithumb Korea and Bithumb Holdings, was indicted without detention on charges of fraud on Tuesday.
Lee was charged with defrauding BK Medical Group Aesthetic Clinic CEO Kim Byung-gun over $ 100 million for a down payment in what later became a failed stock sale of Bithumb’s holdings.
Prosecutors said Lee made a proposal to Kim about jointly managing and purchasing shares of the stock exchange in October 2018, primarily based on his plan to list Blockchain Exchange Alliance (BXA) coins on Bithumb, despite his obvious incapacity and his lack of intention to list them. .
Lee demanded a down payment in what he claimed was only a fraction of the certain profit to be made once the BXA coins were listed and sold. But the announcement did not materialize and Kim did not redeem Bithumb.
Lee was not physically detained despite the large sum of money involved, the prosecution said, as he fully cooperated with the investigation and around 70% of the deposit was used to pay tax on capital gains.
However, the prosecution accuses Lee of causing about 22 billion won in losses, acknowledging that most of the losses were suffered by BXA coin investors whose entire investment pool was managed by Kim. and delivered to Lee in exchange for the sale of Bithumb shares.
Lee’s indictment came just a year after he became chairman of Bithumb Korea and Bithumb Holdings, a dramatic move aimed at allaying criticism of the lack of transparency in the main exchange’s ownership structure. County.
According to CoinMarketCap, a bitcoin is traded for $ 33,370 on Thursday afternoon, down 4.1%, or $ 1,411, from the previous day and down 2.99% from the previous week.
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