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South Korean MP’s Cryptocurrency Transactions Reported as Suspicious by Authorities

Financial Services of South Korea reported to the local prosecutor’s office a series of suspicious cryptocurrency transactions made by an MP from the opposition party.
Democratic Party of Korea representative Kim Nam-kuk allegedly withdrew 800,000 WEMIX tokens between late February and early March 2022.
From January to February 2022, Kim’s assets on WEMIX were 6 billion won ($4.5 million). South Korean authorities classified the withdrawals as suspicious transactions and reported them to prosecutors.

Kim said he had not cashed in his tokens and had not broken any laws because South Korea’s civil service ethics law has no reporting requirements for virtual assets.

WEMIX was delisted from major exchanges in South Korea last year for allegedly reporting inaccurate data by the token issuer, WeMade. WeMade unsuccessfully appealed the delisting in court.

In April, it became known that South Korea’s central bank would increase its monitoring of virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and cryptocurrency issuers by requesting transaction data from cryptocurrency exchanges.

Last year, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced that it would monitor cryptocurrency transactions of investors worth more than 100 million won ($70,000).

In the fall, the agency began working with the National Assembly on a bill that would penalize cryptocurrency exchanges for withholding information and manipulating prices.