The South Korean prosecutor’s office sold the bitcoins confiscated four years ago at 45 times more expensive than the original value: for $ 10.8 million instead of $ 238 thousand.
In 2017, the prosecutor’s office in the South Korean city of Suwon confiscated bitcoins from the criminal. Given that there were no regulations governing cryptocurrency activities at the time, the authorities decided to move the seized cryptoassets to cold storage. In late March, the country passed laws increasing regulatory pressure on virtual asset service providers (VASP), including cryptocurrency exchanges.
According to the updated South Korean legislation, real names must be used to register accounts on cryptocurrency platforms, and VASPs are required to transfer transaction data to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of South Korea. After the entry into force of the new rules, the prosecutor’s office decided to use the “stale” bitcoins. According to the prosecutor’s office, the total amount of crypto assets at the time of the confiscation was $ 238,000. However, four years later, the South Korean authorities managed to sell these bitcoins for $ 10.8 million.
Regulators in South Korea are tightening cryptocurrency regulation amid fears that digital assets are being used for money laundering and tax evasion. In this regard, in January 2022, new laws will enter into force in the country, according to which traders will pay income tax of 20% if their profits from trading digital assets exceed 2.5 million Korean won. According to the South Korea Tax Service (NTS), over the past year, the number of cryptocurrency investors has grown by 25%, resulting in an 800% increase in total trading volume.
We will remind that recently the Financial Services Commission of South Korea (FSC) submitted for public discussion new rules, according to which trading floors will pay fines for non-compliance with the rules to combat money laundering (AML).
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