Prosecution Files Appeal Against Second-Instance Ruling
Allegations of Receiving Breach-of-Trust Benefits for Brokering Coin Listing
Former professional golfer Ahn Sunghyun (44), the husband of actress Sung Yuri from the group Fin.K.L, will ultimately stand before the Supreme Court on charges related to soliciting the listing of a cryptocurrency.
According to the legal community on the 7th, the prosecution filed an appeal the previous day against Ahn's second-instance ruling. Earlier, on the 2nd, the 13th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Baek Kangjin, Kim Sunhee, and Yoo Donggyun) acquitted Ahn of charges of fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and of taking bribes in breach of trust.
Former Bithumb Holdings CEO Lee Sangjun, who was tried alongside Ahn on charges of conspiring with him, was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for three years, with an additional forfeiture of 11,525,000 won. Businessman Kang Jonghyun, who requested the listing, was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years. In the first trial, they had been sentenced to two years in prison and a forfeiture of 50,025,000 won, and one year and six months in prison, respectively, but their sentences were reduced on appeal. Song, an official of the coin-issuing company, was found not guilty, as in the first instance.
Ahn was accused of receiving from Kang in 2021 a request to have “Coin A” listed on the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, along with 3 billion won in cash, two luxury watches worth a total of 400 million won, and a membership card to a high-end restaurant, then passing these to former Bithumb Holdings CEO Lee and sharing them with him (charges including taking bribes in breach of trust). Prosecutors indicted them in 2023 on charges of taking bribes in breach of trust, viewing that they had privatized the authority to review exchange listings and obtained undue gains.
The court, as in the first instance, found Ahn not guilty of the charge that Kang, through Ahn, delivered 3 billion won to former CEO Lee as consideration for arranging the coin listing, and also of the charge that Ahn deceived Kang into giving him an additional 2 billion won by saying, "CEO Lee is asking for the listing fee to be paid quickly." However, unlike the first-instance court, the appellate court viewed Ahn not as the recipient but as the provider of the luxury watches. Accordingly, it held that the offense of taking bribes in breach of trust, which applies to the recipient, could not be established against Ahn.
The appellate court stated, "There is no direct evidence that Ahn and former CEO Lee conspired in advance to receive money in return for the coin listing," adding, "It is more consistent with the facts to see that Ahn, at Kang's request, asked former CEO Lee to list the coin." Because Ahn was acquitted of the receipt-of-bribes charge, the court also did not recognize Kang's charge of giving valuables to Ahn, nor former CEO Lee's charge of receiving valuables in collusion with Ahn. In the end, only the act of Kang giving valuables to former CEO Lee as consideration for the solicitation was found to be criminal.
Regarding former CEO Lee, the court pointed out, "Receiving improper solicitations and handling valuables in connection with coin-listing work at a virtual asset exchange undermines the fairness and transparency of the market and can cause financial losses to good-faith investors, so the degree of blame is high," and added, "The total amount of valuables he received as consideration for improper solicitations in his position as an executive of Bithumb’s operating company reached 260 million won." As for the reasons for sentencing, it explained, "However, he himself provided Kang with gifts as expensive as those he received from Kang, and, due to Ahn's acquittal on the breach-of-trust bribery charge, the total amount of bribes recognized has decreased compared with the first-instance ruling."
Former professional golfer An Seonghyun attended a detention warrant hearing at the Seoul Southern District Court in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, on September 1, 2023. Photo by Yonhap News
Meanwhile, Ahn debuted as a professional golfer in 2005 and served as a coach for the Republic of Korea national golf reserve team from 2014 to 2018. He is also well known as the husband of Sung Yuri, formerly of the group Fin.K.L. Sung had temporarily halted her broadcasting activities but returned in April last year through a home shopping program.
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