TechFlow reports that South Korea's financial regulators have issued a stern warning, stating that individuals involved in cryptocurrency scams profiting over $4 million (approximately 5 billion KRW) will face life imprisonment. This warning follows the enactment of South Korea’s Virtual Asset User Protection Act in July 2024, designed to prevent crypto-related crimes, partly inspired by the case of Terra/Luna founder Do Kwon and the collapse of the FTX exchange.
Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), conveyed to 16 digital asset industry executives that financial authorities will continue strict enforcement of the new law. Additional penalties under the act include fines of three to five times the illicit gains and up to one year of imprisonment. Furthermore, the law mandates virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to store at least 80% of customer funds in cold wallets and establish reserve funds for cybersecurity incident responses.
