Bithumb faces more woes as Korean authorities accuse it of price manipulation 

South Korean authorities have raided Bithumb’s premises over allegations of price manipulation of locally-issued GoMoney2 and Pixel tokens, as well as fraudulent transactions.

A few days after reports emerged that South Korea’s National Tax Service (NTS) had launched investigations into Bithumb’s operations over possible violation of the country’s tax laws, the centralized bitcoin (BTC) trading venue is in the news again for alleged fraudulent practices.

Per sources close to the latest development, Korean law enforcement agents raided the premises of Bithumb on Jan. 26 over allegations of insider trading and price manipulation of some local tokens, including GoMoney2 and Pixel Coin.

The Seoul prosecutor’s office revealed to the local news source Yonhap that the raid on the country’s second-largest exchange by trading volume was aimed at obtaining transaction data on the said tokens. Authorities are also looking to raid Coinone and Upbit exchanges, both suspected of being involved in fraudulent practices.

As reported by crypto.news, Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for Kang Jong-Hyeon, the alleged owner of Bithumb, over embezzlement and stock price manipulation. 

Bithumb has been in the news lately for all the not-so-good reasons. Last December, it was reported that Park Mo, the vice president of Bithumb subsidiary Vident, was found dead in front of his house in Dongjak-gu.

In January, Lee Jung-hoon, the former chairman of Bithumb, was found not guilty and cleared of all charges of fraud leveled against him.