A Seoul court acquitted Park, a 45-year-old crypto influencer known online as “Coin King Jonber Kim,” on October 15 in a case prosecutors tied to $253 million. The ruling cleared him of financial crime charges involving Podo coin and ATube tokens after judges found the evidence did not establish that his actions caused token price changes or investor purchases. The case details were reported by Blockonomi’s account.
Prosecutors had described Park as the mastermind behind the two tokens. They alleged he made false promises to investors and manipulated prices, allowing him to take $253 million from a large group of investors. They asked the court to impose a 20-year prison sentence and seize more than $14 million from his estate. The court did not grant those requests.
South Korea Crypto Case Turns on Investor Decisions
Judges found that the tokens’ white papers contained deceptive proposals. A white paper is a document explaining a crypto project to possible buyers. But the court said prosecutors had not shown that the documents alone caused people to buy the tokens.
The court examined how investors said they made their decisions. It found that many did not rely on the white papers, while others offered no clear details about why they bought. Some confirmed victim statements described purchases prompted by blogs, YouTube, online communities or introductions from acquaintances rather than the white papers or defendants’ materials.
“Even among the victims whose statements were confirmed, there are cases where they purchased based on blogs, Youtube, communities, or acquaintances’ introductions rather than white papers or the defendants’ materials, or where the purchasing circumstances were not revealed,” the court said.
That evidence formed part of the court’s reason for clearing Park. The judges said prosecutors failed to prove a direct link between his actions and movements in the tokens’ prices. They also said the record did not show that the white papers alone led buyers to invest. The acquittal therefore rested on what the court said the evidence did and did not establish, despite its finding that the documents were deceptive.
Prosecutors’ Claims and the Court’s Finding
The case focused on Podo coin and ATube. Prosecutors argued Park made false promises and manipulated both prices. The court found insufficient evidence to prove the claims and connect them to investor losses.
Park was known on social media and often displayed luxury cars while saying he had made his fortune from digital assets, according to the source report. The source also described the case as one of South Korea’s largest crypto fraud cases. The court’s decision turned on proof linking the alleged conduct to buyers’ decisions.
Other fraud cases have produced different court outcomes. A New York judge sentenced Do Kwon to 15 years after his fraud plea, while a former startup finance chief received two years for diverting company funds into cryptocurrency investments. The Seoul ruling in Park’s case was an acquittal, based on the evidence presented about token prices, the white papers and how investors chose to buy.
South Korean authorities have also taken other steps against crypto-related misconduct. The source reported that the Financial Supervisory Service had begun using AI tools to find price manipulation on the country’s largest crypto exchanges. It also reported that, in August, the same Seoul court sentenced former Delio CEO Jeong Sang-ho to 15 years for embezzling $49.2 million in customer assets. Other crypto-fraud coverage includes a company winding-up case. Those separate actions do not alter the finding in Park’s case: prosecutors did not prove the required link in the Podo coin and ATube charges.
The court’s October 15 decision leaves Park acquitted in this case. The ruling’s stated basis was the failure to connect the alleged conduct to price changes or investor purchases.
