{"id":9169,"date":"2026-06-12T03:11:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T00:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/bithumb-ceo-booked-in-korea-over-job-offer-bribe-allegations\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T03:11:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T00:11:47","slug":"bithumb-ceo-booked-in-korea-over-job-offer-bribe-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/bithumb-ceo-booked-in-korea-over-job-offer-bribe-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"Bithumb CEO booked in Korea over job offer bribe allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Korean police have booked Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won on suspicion of bribery after he allegedly agreed to give a politician\u2019s son a job in exchange for legislative favors.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to Yonhap media, which reports<\/a> police began their investigation on June 11.<\/p>\n

Lee was allegedly asked by the lawmaker Kim Byung-ki, who was on the National Assembly\u2019s Political Affairs Committee, to hire his son while sharing a drink together at a restaurant in November 2024.<\/p>\n

In addition to this, Kim allegedly requested that Bithumb hire an aide who worked in Kim\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Authorities suspect that Kim then used his legislative powers to draw attention to \u201cmonopoly issues\u201d around Bithumb rival Dunamu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Bithumb accidentally gave away 2,000 BTC and crashed its market<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Read more: Bithumb chief bribed to list crypto, prosecutors claim<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The revelations were reportedly made by a former aide who worked for Kim, and police suspect that the legislative scrutiny was intensified in return for his son\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

Kim\u2019s son was reportedly<\/a> hired in January 2025 and worked at Bithumb for roughly six months. Kim is also suspected of acquiring preferential treatment for his son\u2019s university transfer and receiving suspicious political funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bithumb a magnet for police raids<\/h2>\n

Police carried out a search warrant against Bithumb last February over Kim\u2019s suspected involvement in the bribery case regarding his son\u2019s employment.<\/p>\n

Then, on June 8, another<\/a> raid was carried out, with Lee being named a suspect in the case.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Bithumb has been raided multiple times over the years. Its former CEO, Kim Dae-sik, allegedly<\/a> misappropriated $2 million worth of won to buy an apartment. This led to another raid last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, another series of raids were carried out against the company and fellow crypto exchange Upbit. This followed suspicions<\/a> over a South Korean lawmaker\u2019s $4.5 million worth of crypto holdings and how he obtained them.<\/p>\n

Another raid was carried out in 2023 against<\/a> Lee Sang-jun, the chief exec of Bithumb\u2019s parent company. In this case, he was suspected of accepting financial bribes in exchange for specific cryptocurrency listings.<\/p>\n

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via\u00a0<\/em>Protos Leaks<\/em><\/a>. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on\u00a0X<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Bluesky<\/em><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/em>Google News<\/em><\/a>, or subscribe to our\u00a0<\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>\u00a0channel.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Bithumb CEO booked in Korea over job offer bribe allegations<\/a> appeared first on Protos<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Korean police have booked Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won on suspicion of bribery after he allegedly agreed to give a politician\u2019s son a job in exchange for legislative favors. That\u2019s according to Yonhap media, which reports police began their investigation on June 11. Lee was allegedly asked by the lawmaker Kim Byung-ki, who was on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-invest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/handoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}