In brief
- A Seoul court sentenced Delio chief executive Jeong Sang-ho to 15 years for fraud and for registering as a virtual asset provider using false documents, according to local media.
- The court ruled evidence seized from Delio's server host was unlawfully obtained, voiding the primary charge covering 2,800 victims and 250 billion won.
- He was convicted instead on fallback charges covering roughly 1,100 victims and 70 billion won, about $49 million.
The Seoul Southern District Court has sentenced Delio chief executive Jeong Sang-ho to 15 years in prison over the collapse of the South Korean crypto deposit platform, five years short of the term prosecutors sought.
Criminal Division 11, presided over by Judge Jang Chan, handed down the ruling on Thursday afternoon, according to local outlet Newsis. The court upheld only part of the prosecution's original case and convicted Jeong largely on a set of fallback charges filed later.
The reason was procedural, with Jeong's lawyers arguing that a search and seizure carried out at Gabia, the company hosting Delio's servers, had been unlawful, and the court agreeing. Prosecutors had not guaranteed Delio's right to participate in the search and had not handed over a list of what was seized, the court found, ruling that the platform's database and everything derived from it carried no evidentiary value.
That gutted the indictment, which had accused Jeong of defrauding roughly 2,800 people of about 250 billion won, some $176 million, in crypto between August 2021 and June 2023. What survived was the reserve case, covering about 1,100 victims and roughly 70 billion won, or $49 million, which prosecutors had added as insurance after the evidence was challenged. Jeong was acquitted in respect of 41 further victims for whom no evidence was submitted.
He was also convicted of registering Delio as a virtual asset service provider using a falsified accounting firm report, which prosecutors said overstated its coin holdings by about 47.6 billion won, roughly $34 million.
What the court said
Jeong obtained his license dishonestly and took more than 70 billion won from customers, the court said. He had promoted Delio as a crypto bank while lacking the capacity to run it, the judges added, and had evaded responsibility by blaming bankruptcy for his failure to return customer assets.
In mitigation, the court noted that outside events had contributed to the collapse and that Jeong had no previous convictions carrying a penalty above a fine.
The verdict had originally been due on July 16, but was delayed after Jeong's team raised the evidence issue and the court reopened arguments. Prosecutors then filed the narrower fallback charges in case the server material was excluded, which is what happened.