South Korean crypto exchange fraudsters who stole $1.5 billion are sent to jail.

As a result of the latest court case, there are now seven V Global executives behind bars. The CEO was already serving a 22-year sentence when the latest case was brought up.

Six executives who were involved in the $1.5 billion (2 trillion won) South Korean crypto exchange fraud V Global were given prison sentences of up to eight years, but three were not detained so they could fight certain charges in court.

V Global was in business from July 2020 to April 2021. It attracted about 50,000 investors by promising them 300% returns and big bonuses for bringing in new customers.

South Korean news sources, such as Economist.co.kr, reported on December 26 that two high-ranking executives, Mr. Yang and Mr. Oh, got eight and three years in prison, respectively, for their part in scamming investors.

Four more executives who were not named were given three-year prison terms and five years of probation.

Three of the six have said they are innocent of some charges and have the right to defend themselves in court, so they have not yet been locked up.

The judge from the 12th Criminal Division of the Suwon District Court said, "The defendants only trusted the VGlobal management team, didn't take responsibility, and when the investigation began, they destroyed evidence and tried to stop the investigation."

The judge, on the other hand, was said to have been lenient with the defendants because the amount of fraud and the number of investors who were hurt were less than what was thought last year.

Kyeongin said in February that this was because later evidence showed that around 10,000 investors had gotten their money back from V Global through multilevel marketing incentives like customer recruitment bonuses. People say that after making money on the platform, many put it back into business before it was shut down.

In June of last year, it was said that the company had used the money from new users to pay existing investors their customer referral bonuses, which were said to be worth $1,000 each.

With the latest court action, there are now seven V Global executives in jail. The CEO, who goes by the name Mr. Lee, was sentenced to 22 years in prison back in February.