Good day everybody,
Welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things crypto. A disturbing article came across my path which I wanted to look more into and share with the community here. Recently there has been a rise of crypto related crime, and in South Korea a specifically horrible incident recently happened.
Kidnapping over Crypto
An alleged crime took place in Gangnam, Seoul, where a 48 year old woman was kidnapped by two men, although there are four suspects overall who are believed to have been involved in the crime. The crime was caught on camera and shared in local news reports, and the belief is that the crime was motivated by crypto. In the video below by the South Korean broadcaster MBC the kidnapping is shown where three men attack a woman on the street at 11.46pm on March 29th 2023 in the affluent Seocho neighbourhood. The district is known to be home to most of the nation’s biggest crypto firms. Once they have attacked and subdued the woman, they then proceed to drag her into a car.
The four men are aged between 24 and 36 and have been placed in police custody in connection with the crime. The men are known as Pre Chosun, Maeil Kyungjae, Joongang, and EToday. They are believed to be the men shown in the video, and the youngest of the group is believed to have been previously employed to 'tail' the woman for a number of months. There many also be more people involved in the crime which is not yet known to the police, but the below Tweet shows three of the four current suspects being taken into custody in South Korea.
Murder For Bitcoin
While the identity of the victim has not been revealed, media outlets have reported she was a former employee of a crypto related business. Apparently she had been the owner of large amounts of crypto, including Bitcoin, with a total value suspected to have been around $3.83 million USD. Her husband has also been arrested on crypto-related fraud charges and is in police custody awaiting trial.
The day after the woman was kidnapped, her family contacted the police to report her as missing, and an investigation was launched. This led to the discovery of the vehicles model and license plate number. After tracking the car's movements, the found the abandoned car near Daejeon. Inside the vehicle were traces of blood along with a pickaxe, shove, cable tie, and tape.
It is believed the men kidnapped the woman and held her hostage for two days while drugging her with ketamine. She was eventually suffocated and driven to the nearby city of Daejeon where her body was discovered near the city's Dacheong Dam.
Prior Association & Crimes
Apparently the youngest member in custody, the 24 year old, told the police he had been asked to get involved back in January when he was instructed to tail the woman, but he denies having anything to do with her kidnapping or subsequent murder. The police also believe the 35 year old was the ringleader of the group, and that he had previously invested around $61,000 in the victim’s former company. He was also once employed there, and the police are of the belief he had lost all of the money which had been invested.
As a form of payback and to get his lost investment back, he apparently convinced the 36 year old to help him kidnap the woman. Another man, aged 30, was in debt to the 36 year old and apparently if he assisted in the deed that debt would be written off. The crime was committed with the intention of stealing the coins the woman held, according to police reports.
The crime was premeditated and explained that the men appear to have used cash and pay-as-you-go mobile phones in a bid to escape arrest. It is also believed that at least two of the men involved were former college classmates.
As for South Korea, they have seen an increase in violent crimes, notably murder, when it comes to the crypto industry. In December of 2022 a crypto firm CEO is reported to have stabbed his girlfriend to death before throwing her from a 19th floor apartment complex. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for his actions.
There has also been a growing concern over the use of crypto in drug trafficking within the country. The police are known to have increased their monitoring expenditure four times the normal amount to tackle the crypto related crimes, taking it to $2.4 million. They have also been forming specialized crypto units due to crypto tracking systems and its use to buy or sell narcotics. Statistics show that 1,174 of the 3,033 drug offenders arrested by the police between March and May 2022 were done through the use of cryptocurrencies.
Have a great day.
Peace. CryptoGod-1.
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