A courtroom drama took a dangerous turn when the CEO of a prominent crypto company was assaulted during his trial.
As per the latest crypto news, during a court session in Seoul, the CEO of a South Korean crypto firm, Haru Invest, was brutally attacked. Hugo Hyungsoo Lee, the CEO of the crypto-earning company, was stabbed multiple times in the neck by a man in his 40s, reportedly a victim of Haru Invest.
The assault occurred amid court proceedings where Haru Invest’s top executives were accused of embezzling a staggering $826 million in cryptocurrency from about 16,000 users.
The attacker, seated as a guest in the courtroom, suddenly lunged at Lee with a small knife. Lee was rushed to the hospital immediately following the attack. This dramatic turn of events comes after Haru Invest suspended withdrawals on June 13, 2023, triggering a cascade of financial turmoil.
The following day, Delio, a related depository and management company, also halted withdrawals, adding to the chaos.
South Korean prosecutors had earlier arrested three of Haru Invest’s top executives, including Lee, in February 2024, accusing them of misappropriating nearly $826 million in digital assets.
Cryptocurrency news reports that the executives allegedly rerouted most of the deposited coins by reinvesting them from March 2020 to June 2023, all while falsely promoting Haru as a stable, risk-free investment platform. Although Lee was released from custody in July, the trial continues to unfold.
This attack on Lee highlights a growing trend where physical violence is becoming more common in the crypto world, a stark shift from the cyber-attacks that once dominated the landscape. In recent months, incidents of physical assaults linked to digital assets have surged.
On August 4, four Chinese nationals broke into a gated estate in Thailand, forcing their victim at gunpoint to transfer $2 million worth of cryptocurrency. Similarly, in July, four men kidnapped a Bitcoin holder in Kyiv, Ukraine, coercing him to transfer 3 Bitcoin before strangling him.
And in a chilling event on June 17 in London, three armed men invaded a home, forcing the owner to transfer 1,000 Ether, worth over $2.5 million, although the victim escaped physical harm.
