[2018-01-18] South Korea: Gov’t Officials Accused of Crypto Insider Trading

[cybersofts]

South Korea: Gov’t Officials Accused of Crypto Insider Trading



The past week of confusion and friction over cryptocurrency regulation in South Korea continues to unfold as accusations surface of government officials practicing insider trading, local news source Chosun reports.

According to the local reports on Thursday, Jan. 18, some government officials from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), who were aware of forthcoming announcements about either a full ban or significant restrictions on trading, bought and sold cryptocurrency just before that information went public.

FSS chief Choi Hyung-sik confirmed the suspicions in a meeting Thursday, admitting:

    “We have confirmed the intelligence. We have confirmed that some public officials have done such an act”

The allegations of activity tantamount to corruption further weaken Seoul's position after its highly-unpopular and contradictory announcements on cryptocurrency regulation caused a mass public outcry.

A public petition calling for a reversal of the restrictions as well as the firing of some high-profile ministers has now attracted more than 200,000 signatures, meaning it requires a government response within 30 days.

Meanwhile, the legality of any insider crypto trading based on classified knowledge is not clear at the moment. Ironically, cryptocurrency’s undefined legal status means the practice cannot be treated as trading involving fully-regulated instruments.

A FSS official stated:

    “There is no code of ethics and no code of conduct for virtual currency investment in FSS regulations, so it’s difficult to say about punishment at this stage.”

Chosun also points out that the officials could be accused not of insider trading, but more generally of “the misuse of internal information.”


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-govt-officials-accused-of-crypto-insider-trading

[richardsNY]

I was suspecting this from the moment certain government officials started to debunk these fud articles where South Korea was stated to ban crypto exchanges. It just shows that this nasty bit of market manipulation doesn't just stop by wall street banks. I seriously hope that the people behind all this will lose their position, especially so because of how serious this this. I would think similar if the subject was regarding stock market manipulation. I just can't stand corruption that stretches out all the way to governmental levels, and especially not when it is at cost of innocent people. I hope justice will do its work....

[jyakulis]

holy heck that ban meme is true!

[darkangel11]

Nothing unexpected, really. The Chinese were doing the same thing and I don't remember them charging any official with anything. Maybe you remember what was taking place after the Mt.Gox fiasco when the Chinese gov has started to put pressure on exchanges. Every couple weeks there were tweets from anonymous sources or news agencies claiming they got a tip from someone inside the closed conference room and every time those news were causing a dip.

[tee-rex]

I was suspecting this from the moment certain government officials started to debunk these fud articles where South Korea was stated to ban crypto exchanges. It just shows that this nasty bit of market manipulation doesn't just stop by wall street banks. I seriously hope that the people behind all this will lose their position, especially so because of how serious this this. I would think similar if the subject was regarding stock market manipulation. I just can't stand corruption that stretches out all the way to governmental levels, and especially not when it is at cost of innocent people. I hope justice will do its work....

But what would you expect really? Crypto is easy money for those who can easily send bitcoin and the rest of the pack down for a dozen percentages without blinking an eye. The Chinese have been doing just that year after year. It is even strange that it ever came to surface in South Korea. Corruption is not some remote concept, it is a harsh reality.

[Kemarit]

Oh OK, that's why we can't find anything that we can relate all this FUD and we just woke up seeing the market has crashed already. And then we pinpoint all the FUD coming around the South Korean government supposedly banning of all things crypto related. Not the first time though, Chinese have been doing this sort of manipulation before, however, I was quite surprised South Korean's officials doing this fraudulent act. Let's see how it goes, I hope that everything is clear enough that this is just pure FUD and hope that everything will be normal in the next couple of days.

[Qartersa]

Well, I am not at all surprised because they have all the access to all information possible. I can relate this to personal interest hence they use their posts to promote their own causes. I pity the normal people for they are being used as pawns by government officials in power. Because of this, the average people easily part with their money on the pretext of earning a little not knowing that all these are being manipulated by those in power whose earning bigger bucks due to this kind of scheme. What I find worst is that I have no idea how to stop this since there will always be people who will abuse their position for their own benefits.

[Ludwish]

Are you surprised?

Not so surprised. But it give us no confidence in the process.