South Korea's "Cryptocurrency Assassination" Haru Invest CEO Courtroom Attack Perpetrator Faces 10-Year Prison Sentence

BlockBeats News, March 19th. According to TheBlock, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor's Office today requested the court to sentence a 51-year-old man, Mr. Kang, to 10 years in prison for attacking the CEO of the South Korean crypto CeFi platform Haru Invest, Hugo Hyungsoo Lee. This case has attracted widespread attention due to its involvement in a large-scale crypto scam and courtroom violence. In August 2024, Mr. Kang stabbed Mr. Lee's neck multiple times with a fruit knife during the fraud trial, but did not cause life-threatening injuries.

The perpetrator, Mr. Kang, had previously deposited 100 bitcoins in Haru Invest (currently worth about $8.3 million) that he was unable to withdraw. The Korean prosecutors accused Haru Invest of deceiving 16,000 global investors from March 2020 to June 2023 with a "guaranteed 16% return," involving a total amount of 14 trillion Korean won (approximately $9.62 billion). Haru Invest suddenly suspended deposits and withdrawals on June 13, 2023, and declared bankruptcy in November of the same year. The final sentencing for the perpetrator, Mr. Kang, is scheduled for April 4th, while the bankruptcy liquidation of Haru Invest is still ongoing, leaving the possibility of investors recovering their losses uncertain.