- Haru Invest CEO Hugo Lee was stabbed at the Seoul Southern District Court on August 28.
- He is on trial for fraud charges related to the shutting down of the platform.
- The attack highlights a growing trend of brutal crypto-related attacks.
A former user of Haru Invest stabbed the company’s CEO Hyungsoo Lee, also known as Hugo Lee, in the neck at the Seoul Southern District Court on August 28.
Lee, who is currently on trial for fraud charges related to the platform halting withdrawals in June 2023, was rushed to hospital. His injuries are not life-threatening, according to Reuters.
Police detained the assailant, a man in his fifties, at the scene.
The incident is the latest in a string of violent attacks that have been linked to cryptocurrencies over the last few months. In Hong Kong in March, a 19-year-old was lured to a hotel room on the pretence of trading cryptocurrency, where he was beaten with baseball bats.
In May, a 55-year-old investor involved in a crypto investment dispute was abducted by four men, also in Hong Kong. Two Chinese businessmen were killed in the Philippines in June after being held ransom for crypto.
And recently in the US, a Florida man was convicted of targeting cryptocurrency owners in violent home invasions across four states.
K-Drama
Haru Invest, launched in 2020, marketed itself as a “CeFi digital asset investment platform,” boasting “smart, simple, secure crypto investing” and offering yields as high as 17%.
At its peak, it advertised returns of 13% on Tether and 15% for investments in Terra’s Korean won stablecoin, KRT.
The firm abruptly suspended deposits and withdrawals on June 13, 2023, sparking a wave of panic among users.
While the company said it was not “rug pulling” investors, it simultaneously laid off over 100 employees and shut down several social media accounts. It held over $1 billion in user deposits.
In a subsequent statement on June 14, 2023, Haru blamed its woes on B&S Holdings, accusing the firm of submitting “false management reports” that misled both the company and its users.
It added it had filed a criminal complaint and intended to pursue civil litigation against B&S Holdings.
FTX fallout
Despite saying it used diversified trading strategies, Haru Invest gave funds to B&S Holdings to trade, which it did on FTX, the now-bankrupt exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March for his role in the collapse of FTX and its sister firm Alameda Research in 2022.
On August 13, the majority shareholder of B&S Holdings, Jun-ho Bang was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in a $45 million virtual asset fraud scheme through Haru Invest and another collapsed platform, Delio. He is appealing his sentence.
Bang is also under investigation in a second case focused on activities before FTX collapsed.
Delio’s CEO, Sang-ho Jeong, was indicted in April 2024 on charges of virtual asset fraud involving $184 million.
Callan Quinn is an Asia Correspondent for DL News. Got a tip? Email her at callan@dlnews.com.