Fugitive Behind $13M Crypto Scam Caught in Seoul Over a Cigarette
A 60-year-old man who had been evading capture for nearly five years was finally arrested in South Korea $SOLV — not during an international manhunt, but because he carelessly flicked a cigarette onto the street.
From Scam Artist to Street Offender
Police $POL in Seoul’s Gwanak District stopped the man, identified only as “A,” after spotting him littering. Instead of complying, he tried to run, refused to show ID, attempted to bribe officers, and even pretended to make a phone call while trying to escape into a taxi. His antics didn’t work — he was arrested on the spot.
What seemed like a simple street stop quickly turned into something much bigger. Investigators discovered that the man was the architect of a massive crypto#HEMIBinanceTGE fraud scheme worth 17.7 billion won (about $13 million), which defrauded roughly 1,300 victims between 2018 and 2019.
After disappearing in 2020, “A” had been wanted on 10 separate charges, including fraud and assault. His luck finally ran out when police handed him over this week to the Seoul Southern$BTC
District Prosecutors’ Office.
Crypto#CryptoRally Criminals and Their Costly Mistakes
This isn’t the first time crypto scammers have sabotaged themselves with avoidable slip-ups.
James Zhong (2012): He stole 50,000 bitcoins from Silk Road, worth billions today. Instead of laundering them, he kept the coins hidden in his home. When burglars later broke in and he called police, investigators traced the stash back to the Silk Road hack. Zhong was eventually caught and, in 2023, sentenced to one year in prison.
Heather Morgan & Ilya Lichtenstein (2016 Bitfinex Hack): The couple was linked to the theft of 119,000 bitcoins. Their poor laundering tactics left an obvious digital trail, while Morgan attracted even more attention by posting eccentric rap videos as her alter ego “Razzlekhan.” Both were arrested in 2022 in New York. Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024, while Morgan received 18 months.
The Takeaway
For years, “A” managed to stay one step ahead of the law. But in the end, it wasn’t advanced crypto tracing or a high-tech investigation that exposed him — it was something as ordinary as littering
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