bribe

According to DL News citing the South Korean media Dailian, the South Korean Supreme Court upheld a four-year prison sentence for an employee of a cryptocurrency exchange for assisting North Korean hackers in recruiting a South Korean Army captain, attempting to exchange Bitcoin for military secrets.The employee involved received $487,000 worth of Bitcoin from the North Korean hackers as payment and paid the captain $33,500 worth of Bitcoin as a reward. The court found that the employee violated the National Security Law, and their actions could jeopardize national security. The implicated captain had previously been sentenced to ten years in prison and fined for violating the Military Secrets Protection Act.Investigations revealed that the North Korean hackers instructed the employee to provide the implicated captain with a "watch-shaped hidden camera" and USB hacking devices intended for implanting into military laptops, attempting to remotely access the Korea-U.S. joint command control system, but failed to succeed.The implicated captain had previously been sentenced to ten years in prison and fined for violating the Military Secrets Protection Act.

The Supreme Court of South Korea ruled that an employee of a cryptocurrency trading platform was sentenced to 4 years in prison and banned from engaging in financial-related industries for 4 years for receiving Bitcoin funds provided by North Korea, planning and enticing South Korean officers to sell military secrets.The court found that North Korean hackers paid the trading platform employee approximately $487,000 in Bitcoin to "recruit" active-duty South Korean officers; the involved army captain received about $33,500 in Bitcoin. The judge pointed out that the defendant was aware that the actions involved a hostile country and that the related actions could jeopardize national security, motivated by personal financial gain. The captain had previously been sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $35,000 for violating the Military Secrets Protection Act, while the trading platform employee was convicted of violating the National Security Act. The case revealed that the involved individuals had contacted officers through Telegram chat rooms and provided covert cameras disguised as watches and USB intrusion devices, attempting to steal login information for the Korea-U.S. joint command and control system.

According to DL News, Russian prosecutors are seeking to confiscate a large amount of luxury assets belonging to fugitive secret service officer Georgy Satyukov. He is accused of receiving $184 million worth of Bitcoin and $30 million worth of Ethereum as bribes from the operator of the now-defunct WEX cryptocurrency exchange, while investigators have identified assets valued at $29.6 million related to Satyukov's alleged bribery.Prosecutors claim that Satyukov used the illicit funds to purchase 13 apartments in Russia, several non-residential properties in St. Petersburg, a villa in the UAE, and a million-dollar property in Saratov registered in his brother's name.Additionally, the investigation revealed that he owns two Porsche Cayenne Turbos, seven Patek Philippe watches, and other jewelry worth over $1.3 million, with more than $15 million in cash and foreign currency still in his family bank accounts.It is alleged that the bribes originated from Alexey Ivanov, a former system administrator of the WEX exchange, who sought Satyukov's help to evade a criminal investigation. Satyukov and his former colleague Dmitry Sokolov are currently fugitives, and a Moscow court is preparing to conduct a trial in absentia. If convicted, their assets may be nationalized. The WEX exchange took over the trading operations of BTC-e in 2017, which had shut down after its founder Alexander Vinnik was arrested in Greece on fraud and money laundering charges, and WEX also ceased operations in 2018.

ChainCatcher news, recently, several KOLs including Crypto Brave (@cryptobraveHQ) have indicated that Kaito's business head Wen Yue is suspected of accepting bribes. Among them, Crypto Brave stated that Wen Yue charged certain projects excessive listing fees, allegedly collecting about $200,000 in bribes under the guise of a comprehensive fee package, to ensure that the project parties are prioritized for listing on Kaito.Crypto veteran @SEFATUBA3 stated that Wen Yue asked for a $30,000 bridge fee, which could be given as a whitelist or tokens. In response to the above allegations, Wen Yue (@0xWenMoon) claimed that he has never accepted any bribes. Any payments exceeding $150,000 were for more professional analytical add-on services (such as the KaitoPro platform) or to expedite scheduling (for example, project teams needing to go live on the leaderboard faster to align with a certain event). All funds were paid directly to Kaito, not to me or any other individual.

ChainCatcher news, according to official reports, a typical case recently released by the Haidian Court reveals that a user manager of a certain network technology company took advantage of his position to accept bribes and embezzle virtual currency in a virtual currency reward business, with a total amount involved of 9.74 million yuan.The user manager was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the court for the crime of accepting bribes as a non-state worker and for embezzlement. The case shows that from 2014 to 2019, the defendant obtained 6.08 million yuan in bribes by introducing supplier cooperation and profited 3.66 million yuan by cashing out part of the virtual currency through multiple accounts. This case is the longest prison sentence for corruption crimes committed by internal personnel of internet companies in the past five years.

ChainCatcher news, recently, the Haidian Court, in conjunction with the China Internet Association, released the "White Paper on Corruption Crimes by Internal Personnel of Internet Enterprises" and published typical cases.In one case, a user manager of a certain network technology company introduced a supplier to cooperate on virtual currency business, accepted bribes, and embezzled virtual currency for cashing out. Ultimately, the court sentenced him to nine years in prison for bribery and six years for embezzlement, deciding to execute a total of twelve years in prison.

ChainCatcher news, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) responded to a related report from the Wall Street Journal, stating "WSJ is really trying hard to smear me," and mentioned "they seem to have forgotten who went to jail and who didn't." He pointed out that those who become government witnesses will not be sentenced, but rather will be protected. Changpeng Zhao also hinted that someone is paying WSJ employees to publish negative news against him.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptonews, Nigerian House of Representatives member Philip Agbese has filed a lawsuit against Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan in the Abuja Federal Capital Territory High Court, seeking 1 billion naira (approximately $667,000) in damages for defamation.The lawsuit stems from Gambaryan's claims on social media that Agbese and two other lawmakers attempted to solicit a $150 million cryptocurrency bribe. Agbese's camp stated that he has never owned a cryptocurrency account or engaged in digital currency transactions, demanding that Gambaryan publicly apologize in at least three national newspapers and delete all related social media posts.The Nigerian Minister of Information and National Orientation dismissed Gambaryan's allegations on February 14, stating that the claims lack credible evidence. The court has ordered Gambaryan to respond to the lawsuit within 8 days.Previous news, Binance executives reiterated that Nigerian lawmakers had solicited a $150 million bribe in exchange for dropping the lawsuit against Binance.

ChainCatcher news, Binance's financial crime compliance officer Tigran Gambaryan recently reiterated that a rogue Nigerian lawmaker demanded a $150 million bribe in exchange for dropping the lawsuit against Binance. The relevant lawmaker wanted the funds to be transferred directly to their cryptocurrency wallet, using "fake cameras and media" to make the meeting with visiting Binance executives appear legitimate.In May 2024, reports emerged that Binance CEO Richard Teng accused members of the Nigerian House of Representatives Financial Crimes Committee (HCFC) of soliciting a $150 million bribe. At that time, Nigeria's Minister of Information Mohammed Idris denied the allegations, stating that it was a strategy by the company to "hurry to cover up the serious criminal charges it faces."However, Gambaryan insisted that this attempt was indeed conducted with the involvement of Nigeria's Department of State Services (DSS). He also stated, "The Nigerian government has publicly claimed that there is $26 billion in mysterious funds (through Binance) flowing out of Nigeria, which is completely nonsense. This information was provided at their request; it is merely the cumulative trading data of Nigerians on the platform. This money did not flow out of Nigeria—people are just buying and selling cryptocurrency. For example, if you trade $100 a hundred times, that amounts to $10,000 in trading volume, but in reality, you only used $100. Similarly, this is just another example of their lies to cover up a false investigation."Just after Gambaryan shared these explosive details, Nigeria's Minister of Information Idris issued a statement denying them. However, the statement acknowledged the bribery allegations, but Idris pointed out that it was the Nigerian government that initiated the investigation, "even though no one has formally filed a lawsuit." His statement also revealed that the Nigerian government rejected a U.S. proposal to pay $5 million in exchange for Gambaryan's release.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated on social media Thursday that political tokens could lead to "unlimited" bribery. Vitalik's comments are part of a broader discussion about trends in the cryptocurrency industry, especially in the context of political leaders like U.S. President Trump embracing cryptocurrencies. Vitalik pointed out that certain parts of the industry conflict with each other due to their short-term and long-term values, comparing them to "highly addictive mobile games" and chess.Vitalik wrote on X: "Over the past year, we are entering a new order, and now the most powerful people in the world are cheering for the idea of creating tokens for anything, on any scale, for anyone. Therefore, it is time to discuss the difference between the short-term 'sugar high' fun that is not recommended for newcomers and the long-term sense of achievement and wealth accumulation. This is not to say that 'fun is bad,' but rather the distinction between modern highly addictive mobile games and chess or World of Warcraft. It is time to discuss the fact that large-scale political tokens cross another line: they are not just a source of fun, whose harms are limited to the mistakes made by voluntary participants; they are tools for unlimited political bribery, including bribery from foreign governments."The two recently launched large-scale political tokens are TRUMP and MELANIA, both related to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. These two tokens were launched before Trump took office as the 47th President of the United States on January 20 and soon experienced significant price drops.

ChainCatcher news, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb announced that regarding the first-instance guilty verdict against former CEO Lee Sang-joon for misconduct related to listing coins, the company "will once again confirm the transparency and fairness of the trading review process and continue to make improvements."Bithumb stated that the two types of virtual assets mentioned in the trial have never been listed on Bithumb and confirmed that they have never been submitted to the coin listing review committee.Bithumb representatives emphasized: "The company's coin listing procedure is conducted through an independent coin listing review committee involving external experts, which is not a structure that specific personnel, including relevant executives and employees, can influence. The coin listing process maintains and strengthens fairness through a unified application channel on the official website and strict internal reviews."

According to ChainCatcher, Bloomberg reports that former Binance executive Amrita Srivastava has filed a whistleblower lawsuit in the UK for wrongful termination. During her time in London, Srivastava stated to the labor arbitration tribunal that she was unfairly dismissed after reporting an incident involving colleagues soliciting bribes from clients for preferential treatment.In response, Binance stated that the company was already aware of the matter and had initiated an internal investigation, and that the employee was terminated due to poor job performance, with the dismissal decision made prior to her whistleblowing. The case is currently being heard by the UK labor arbitration tribunal.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, former Binance executive Amrita Srivastava has filed a whistleblower lawsuit in the UK, accusing a colleague of soliciting bribes from clients to expedite service processes, and claiming she was unfairly dismissed for exposing the incident. Srivastava stated that the colleague charged clients under the guise of "consulting services," while falsely claiming to not be an employee of Binance.In response, Binance stated that the company was already aware of the matter and had launched an internal investigation, and that Srivastava was dismissed due to poor performance, with the termination decision made prior to her whistleblowing.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, the U.S. SEC stated on Monday that the cryptocurrency mining company BIT Mining Ltd. (formerly known as 500.com Limited) has agreed to pay a $4 million fine to settle the agency's allegations of bribing Japanese officials.The SEC pointed out that BIT Mining paid $2.5 million in cash bribes and gifts to Japanese lawmakers and others between 2017 and 2019 in an attempt to win bids for opening casino resorts in Japan.In a separate action, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it has reached an agreement with BIT Mining, where BIT Mining agrees to pay a $10 million criminal fine, of which $4 million will be paid to the U.S. SEC by the company.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, former Russian investigator Marat Tambiyev was sentenced to 16 years in prison for accepting approximately $73 million in Bitcoin bribes during an investigation into organized crime. This amount exceeds five times the highest bribe amount in Russian history.Marat Tambiyev is accused of transferring half of the criminal gang's Bitcoin into his own wallet, leaving the other half for the criminals. Investigators found the Bitcoin wallet keys in a folder on his laptop named "Pension."Marat Tambiyev insisted on his innocence in court, arguing that his actions helped the state recover part of the criminal gang's proceeds. According to Russian state media, he plans to appeal this verdict. Currently, one-third of the Bitcoin stored on Marat Tambiyev's computer has been recovered, while the whereabouts of the remaining portion remain unclear.

ChainCatcher news, according to a video interview with Telegram CEO Pavel Durov by the famous American political commentator and journalist Tucker Carlson, Durov stated in the interview: "Whenever we come to the United States, we receive too much attention from the FBI and other security agencies. The last time I went to the U.S., I brought an engineer who works at Telegram. Cybersecurity officials or agents tried to secretly recruit my engineer behind my back. They were very eager to know which open-source libraries are integrated into the Telegram application and tried to persuade him to use certain open-source tools that act as backdoors.""I have personally experienced similar pressure in the U.S. Whenever I go to the United States, I am greeted at the airport by two FBI agents who ask questions. My understanding is that they want to establish a relationship to better control Telegram."