South Korea Financial Regulator: crypto fraud cases with profits over $4 million may face life in prison

On September 26, South Korea's financial regulator issued a stern warning that it would impose life imprisonment penalties in cases of cryptocurrency scams with profits exceeding $4 million (about 5 billion won). The warning comes on the heels of the July 2024 enactment of South Korea's Virtual Asset User Protection Act, which aims to prevent cryptocurrency crimes and was partly inspired by the Terra/Luna founder Do Kwon incident and the FTX exchange crash. In addition, the new law provides for other penalties, including fines ranging from three to five times the amount of illegal profits and up to one year in prison.