The Court of the Southern District of Seoul acquitted the Crimer-Director of the Haru Invest Crypto Lee Hyung Su, who was accused of assigning clients and fraud in the amount of $ 650 million.

Initially, the prosecutor’s office demanded that the court appoint a 23 year of prison to the accused. Law enforcement officers claimed that Haru Invest deceived about 16,000 investors 1.39 trillion out (about $ 1.02 billion). The accusations arose due to the fact that in June 2023 the Haru Invest platform suddenly closed the withdrawal of funds for users. The prosecutor’s office also considered the Haru Invest fraud business model-investors were offered a high annual profit of 25% of the amount of invested funds.

However, the court ruled that Lee Hyuno did not mislead the investors with promises, although he showed negligence. The court decided that the reason for the suspension of the Haru Invest was market shocks, including the collapse of the FTX crypto -tank, which led to a serious crisis of liquidity in crypto. All this greatly influenced the ability of Haru Invest to execute investors’ requests to withdraw funds from the platform. Lee Hyun Su was not fraud, but by a reaction to severe financial conditions, the court ruled.

The court agreed with the arguments of the defense that the activities of Haru Invest were conscientious. According to the business model of the platforms, customer funds were located in the open market for profit-unlike fraudulent cryptocurrencies, the organizers of which present fabricated income reports to investors. Even if the crypto project crashed, this does not mean that the project manager was a fraudster, the court decided. The directors of the Haru Invest, Blockcrafters maternal company were also recognized as innocent in fraud.

In August 2023, during a preliminary hearing whether Hyunu received four stab wounds in the neck from the injured client, who claimed to have lost 100 bitcoins due to the collapse of Haru Invest. Fortunately, after this cruel attack Lee was able to survive, and the attacker was taken into custody.