Breaking: Top Executives of Bithumb Indicted in Hong Kong

IN BRIEF

• Top executives of Bithumb were indicted on fraud charges in Hong Kong.

• The lawsuit will be filed by its former Thai partner for defrauding and breach of contract.

The Hong Kong subsidiaries of South Koreas largest exchange Bithumb are facing a lawsuit for breach of contract and top executives including the owner of the exchange have been indicted for committing fraud. The top executives face criminal charges for fraud worth 100 billion won.

The lawsuit will be filed by the exchanges former Thai partner who had filed a separate lawsuit in South Korea last year. The former partner would file a civil lawsuit against two subsidiaries ― Bithumb Global Holdings (BGH) and GBEX after discovering Bithumb is planning to open an exchange in Thailand again.

Bithumb first announced its plans of opening subsidiaries in Japan and Thailand back in 2017 but by 2018 Thai partners realized that the executives were only making empty promises to sell the token called BXA issued by BK Group Chairman Kim Byung-gun who promised the token will be listed on Bithumb soon. He also tried overtaking Bithumb in 2018 but failed and so did his plans to list the groups token.

The Thai partner said,

“After Bithumb stopped its BXA coin business, its Thai operation became unnecessary, so the company ended its business in Thailand unilaterally, causing serious damage to us,”

“BGH and GBEX collectively own a 49-percent stake in the joint venture in Thailand, and are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Bithumb Korea, so we sued Bithumb Koreas executives last year and decided recently to file lawsuits in Hong Kong against the Hong Kong subsidiaries and their executives, who are related to this issue more directly.”

After collecting a significant downpayment on the BXA token, the failure to list it on Bithumb incurred heavy losses for the investors.

What led to a Lawsuit in Hong Kong？

The Thai partners revealed that the decision to file a lawsuit in Hong Kong arose after seeing no actions against the culprits in South Korea, and the lawsuit is still pending in Suseo Police Station in Seoul for nine months.

The group also plans to file a lawsuit in Japan against Bithumb in near future.