According to a report by “The Block”, the South Korean prosecutor’s office announced on Monday (5th) that it has arrested and detained three senior executives of the cryptocurrency income platform Haru Invest, including two co-CEOs. An official from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office stated in an interview that the prosecutors accused these three individuals of stealing approximately 1.1 trillion Korean won (approximately 826 million US dollars) worth of cryptocurrency from about 16,000 users.
Haru is also accused of issuing false advertisements claiming that the platform manages customer funds through “risk-free decentralized investment technology”, but in reality, most of the funds were invested by an individual. According to reports, Haru Invest offers users of its Earn Plus product an annual interest rate of up to 12%.
After Haru and the cryptocurrency lending company Delio announced the suspension of withdrawals in June 2023, the local government continued to investigate these two companies. At that time, Haru Invest filed a criminal lawsuit against its entrusted operator, B&S Holdings, the day after announcing the suspension of deposit and withdrawal functions, accusing them of deceiving Haru with false reports while incurring losses of more than 260 million US dollars in the FTX collapse. On the same day, Delio announced the suspension of withdrawals and blamed Haru for the sudden halt in withdrawals.
Last month, the South Korean prosecutor’s office issued an arrest warrant for a major shareholder of B&S named “Bang”.
The prosecutor’s office stated in a statement:
