Coinspeaker
Angry Investor Attacks Haru Invest CEO in Court Over $826M Crypto Fraud
An angry investor brutally attacked Haru Invest CEO Hyungsoo Lee during a court trial in South Korea on Wednesday, according to a local news report citing sources present in the courtroom.
Lee, who was sitting at the defendant’s bench in the Seoul Southern District Court, suddenly struggled for his life when one of the victims of his $826 million crypto fraud stabbed him multiple times in the neck with a short knife approximately 20 centimeters long.
Courtroom Drama Unfolds Amidst $826M Fraud Trial
Luckily, courtroom security quickly intervened and subdued the assailant, who was simply identified as Kang. The Haru Invest CEO was later rushed to Korea University Guro Hospital for emergency treatment. However, at the time of writing, it remained unclear whether he survived the attack.
The shocking scene highlights the raw anger and desperation many investors feel after losing substantial amounts of money in what they believed were legitimate investment opportunities.
Kang was among six people who came to observe the trial on August 28 before suddenly deciding to take matters into his own hands. The attack stemmed from the aggressions caused by Haru and its CEO last year when the company’s executives stole 1.1 trillion won (around $826 million) from 16,000 customers.
Haru Executives Misused Customers’ Funds
In February 2024, both the company’s CEO and two other top executives were arrested by the Joint Investigation Team of Virtual Asset Crimes of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office.
A few months after the arrest, prosecutors charged Haru executives with misappropriating customer funds from March 2020 to June 2023, despite promoting “risk-free, diversified investment strategies”.
Lee was later indicted on the basis of fraud under the Aggravated Punishment Act for Specific Economic Crimes. In July 2023, he was released on bail, and the criminal trial began shortly thereafter.
Crypto Crime in South Korea
Meanwhile, South Korea has been grappling with an increasing number of crypto-related fraud cases in recent years.
Just months after the Haru scandal, a major South Korean exchange, V Global, was implicated in another massive fraud case, with over 50,000 victims losing a collective $1.7 billion. Similar to the Haru case, V Global executives lured investors with promises of high returns, only to disappear with their funds.
The exchange’s CEO, Lee Byung-gul, was later charged with fraud and convicted to 25 years in prison.
Most recently, Do Kwon, another top crypto executive in South Korea, was indicted in the United States for fraud. The former CEO of Terraform Labs was charged with numerous crimes, including securities fraud, commodities fraud, and wire fraud.
Angry Investor Attacks Haru Invest CEO in Court Over $826M Crypto Fraud
