South Korean Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon was recently in New York to discuss various ways the two nations can cooperate in investigations related to financial crimes, especially those related to cryptocurrencies.
Hoon met Tuesday with the co-chair of the Securities and Commodities Working Group, Andrea M. Griswold, at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, along with Scott Hartmann, head of the same office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, a local news outlet reported.
The two sides discussed ways to share information and strengthen cooperation to ensure efficient action on the growing number of securities fraud associated with the digital asset market, the outlet reported. Both parties would have agreed to share their latest research data around Terra, a cryptocurrency project that is being investigated in both countries.
The collapse of the $40 billion Terra ecosystem has drawn legal scrutiny from both countries. The United States recently opened a new investigation against Terra co-founder Do Kwon. while South Korean justice is studying several charges, such as fraud, market manipulation and tax evasion.
The cooperation between the two nations could be the first of many, as cryptocurrency-related crimes have come under the spotlight of regulators in recent times. South Korea has become one of the strictest nations when it comes to cryptocurrency regulations, ensuring strict Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) guidelines.
The novel around Terra has also prompted Korean lawmakers to form a new cryptocurrency oversight committee to evaluate new projects that are listed on cryptocurrency exchanges. Many experts have predicted that the decline of TerraUSD Classic (USTC) would tilt regulators to favor centralized over algorithmic stablecoins.
Due to the lack of clear regulations on cryptocurrencies, the monitoring and prosecution of these crimes, which often involve cross-border transactions and eventual money laundering, is increasingly difficult and complex. For example, a Dutch university paid €200,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) as a ransom in 2019. Researchers managed to trace a wallet to Ukraine and ultimately had to work with local authorities to recover the funds nearly three years after the hack.
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