South Korean court applies virtual asset user protection law for first time in fake coin fraud case

A South Korean court has found a money launderer guilty of violating the Virtual Asset User Protection Act in a roughly 500 million won investment fraud case involving a non-existent cryptocurrency, sentencing the defendant to two years and six months in prison, Digital Asset reported. According to the outlet, this is the first confirmed guilty verdict under the act in a case that was not referred to investigative authorities by financial regulators as an unfair trading matter. The ruling said the court determined the violation of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act was the most serious among the defendant’s offenses in both sentencing range and criminal nature, and applied an aggravated punishment for concurrent crimes based on that count.