Beware! Participating in Money Laundering with Crypto Assets can lead to increased penalties. What does this case tell you?

A case worth following involves a Korean man who was originally sentenced to probation for participating in Money Laundering operations involving Crypto Assets, but his appeal resulted in a harsher penalty.

The specific situation is as follows. This guy helped a voice phishing gang with Money Laundering of $68,000. The local court initially sentenced him to two and a half years in prison but with four years probation, which he appealed. Unexpectedly, the Suwon High Court directly revoked the probation and changed the sentence to four years in prison.

Why is the court being so harsh? The key reason is that they discovered he is not just an ordinary participant, but a “key player” in the gang. He even claimed to be the “person in charge” and often received daily operation reports from the gang. The gang operated like this: they impersonated prosecutors to call victims, falsely claimed their identity had been stolen, and frightened them into transferring money to a “safe account.” Once the money arrived, it was converted into Crypto Assets and then sent to an overseas address.

The court ruling also mentioned that this guy has a criminal record, and this time committing the crime shows that he hasn't learned his lesson at all, “the possibility of reoffending is very high”, so a severe sentence was decided. He can still appeal to the Supreme Court of Korea, but this case has already sounded an alarm for the entire crypto assets circle — participating in money laundering, especially playing a key role, has legal consequences far more serious than one might imagine.