Court: "Private Retaliation During Public Trial"
"Cannot Be Justified Under Any Circumstances"
Disruption of Court Order, Causes Public Distrust
Five-Year Prison Sentence in Both First and Second Trials
Supreme Court Finalizes Sentence, Citing "No Valid Grounds for Appeal"
A victim of fraud who stabbed the CEO of a cryptocurrency company in court has had his five-year prison sentence finalized by the Supreme Court. The victim of the attack was the CEO of a crypto deposit company. The CEO had been accused of embezzling 1.4 trillion won from over 16,000 people by advertising “risk-free principal guarantee” products, but was acquitted in court. The fraud victim, who suffered financial losses, claimed he committed the crime while in a diminished mental state, but the court ruled that “private retaliation cannot be justified,” and the Supreme Court agreed.
According to the legal community on November 7, the Supreme Court’s Second Division (Presiding Justice Park Youngjae) dismissed the appeal of the man charged with attempted murder and upheld the original verdict. In August of last year, the man attended a trial at the Seoul Southern District Court as an observer. During witness examination, he approached the crypto company CEO and stabbed him in the right side of the neck with a kitchen knife he had concealed beforehand. The court confiscated one kitchen knife and a pair of half-coated cotton work gloves from the man.
The man had been investing in cryptocurrencies since 2017 and had deposited funds, but withdrawals were suspended in 2023 and the company’s office was shut down. The CEO of the crypto company was acquitted on June 1 of the same year. Two months later, upon seeing the CEO appear as a witness in court, the stabbing incident occurred. The first trial court sentenced the man to five years in prison. The appellate court dismissed his appeal and imposed the same sentence.
The appellate court stated, “Committing attempted murder during an open trial disrupts the function of the court and causes public distrust in a public space, making the crime particularly grave. Even if the defendant believed he suffered significant financial losses, the criminal trial was still ongoing, and such private retaliation can never be justified.” The Supreme Court reached the same conclusion. The man appealed, claiming the sentence was excessive, but the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, stating “this does not constitute a valid legal ground for appeal,” and finalized the five-year prison sentence.
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