Police raided domestic exchange Upbit to check the flow of funds related to the Cambodia virtual asset exchange "Huiyuan Guarantee."
According to police on the 1st, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Security Investigation Division obtained a warrant from the court on the 15th and searched and seized Upbit. Police were said to have secured Huiyuan Guarantee's coin deposit and withdrawal records through the raid and plan to examine the flow of funds.
Huiyuan Guarantee is the virtual asset service platform of Huiyuan Group. Huiyuan Group was designated as a transnational criminal organization in the United States and United Kingdom and sanctioned on suspicion of laundering coins obtained through fraud or theft.
Police suspect that the coin deposits and withdrawals between the domestic exchange and Huiyuan Guarantee were intended to conceal criminal proceeds.
On Mar. 7, Upbit reported 205 users to police after its own monitoring detected a risk of money laundering. The virtual assets these users moved in and out between Upbit and Huiyuan Guarantee were worth about 2 billion won, accounting for about 3% of the total transaction volume between domestic exchanges and Huiyuan Guarantee. Other domestic exchanges also blocked coin withdrawals by users with deposit and withdrawal records involving Huiyuan Guarantee in May.