CEO of Korean pyramid Coinup gets 16 years in prison for fraud
During the fraudulent campaign from August 2018 to February 2019, the organizers of the coinup pyramid managed to attract 450 billion won ($386 million) from thousands of investors.
The sentence was carried out in accordance with the law enforcement procedure for special types of economic crimes that were committed under aggravating circumstances. Other participants in the scheme received 11, 7, 9 and 6 years in prison, respectively.
The organizers promised investors a multiple increase in their capital, and when buying "package" products, they were able to get a guaranteed income of 200% for 4-10 weeks. According to the investigation, the organizers of the fraudulent scheme thus deceived their investors and provoked them to invest in a pyramid scheme.
"They used different methods to create a trusting environment. For example, the scammers published a magazine in which their CEO was pictured with the current President of South Korea, moon Jae-In. In fact, the photo was fabricated and did not correspond to reality, - said in court documents. "Deception of investors, the number of victims and the scale of losses indicates the Commission of a serious crime."
Many of the participants in the scheme pleaded guilty. The court took into account the fact that some of them had no voting rights in the company and did not make decisions. Law enforcement officers have been monitoring the activities of Coinup since the beginning of this year, when information about the fraud became public.
