A South Korean business executive was granted bail on Thursday as an ongoing investigation into a reported market manipulation scandal involving the Seoul-based cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb continues.
The executive in question, Lee Jun-hyeok, was the Bithumb executive in charge of project investments and initial coin offerings. He was arrested in April and accused of manipulating the price of Bithumb tokens through a series of “strange transactions”.
The Seoul Central District Court released Lee on a KRW50 million (US$43,700) bail after reviewing evidence that showed that the alleged price-manipulating trades were conducted with the knowledge of the exchange’s founders and were not done with Lee’s authority.
Lee’s release comes during a Bithumb probe by Seoul’s special financial prosecutor, which has been examining possible market manipulation at the Korean exchange since March.
The ongoing investigation is significant considering that Bithumb is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, and has become a target for fraudsters in recent years. With Lee released on bail, the court is determining if and how the exchange’s founders were involved in the questionable trading activities.
