South Korean man arrested for NFT fraud

A man is accused of defrauding investors of more than $165 000

28.04.2022 - 11:00

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What’s new? The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s cyber bureau has arrested the 26-year-old creator of the CatSle NFT collection. The South Korean national is suspected of defrauding nine investors of 210 million won ($165 981). According to the investigation materials, the man inflated the value of NFTs artificially.

Press release of Seoul Police

Details of the case. The suspect created 10 000 CatSle NFTs on the OpenSea marketplace in November 2021. He promised that he would airdrop a certain number of KLAY tokens for every 10 purchases. The Seoul police said none of the investors have received the reward.

In January this year, the creator of CatSle announced the hacking of the project and subsequently shut it down. The suspect managed to sell 5 000 NFTs to 289 buyers worth 270 million won ($212 000). So far, nine affected investors are involved in the lawsuit, with police expecting other victims to come forward soon. The law enforcers suspect four other people who may have been complicit in the crime.

What had happened before? In February, the executives of V Global, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 4 to 22 years. They were accused of fraud and embezzlement of 2 trillion won ($1,9 billion). The investigation revealed that the company turned out to be a pyramid scheme.

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