A Seoul court on October 15 acquitted Park, a 45-year-old crypto influencer known online as “Coin King Jonber Kim,” in a case prosecutors linked to $253 million. The ruling cleared him of financial crime charges involving Podo coin and ATube tokens after judges found that the evidence did not establish that his actions caused changes in the tokens’ prices or prompted investors to buy them.

The case details were reported by Blockonomi’s account: South Korea crypto fraud case: Jonber Kim found not guilty.

Prosecutors had described Park as the mastermind behind the two tokens. They alleged that he made false promises to investors and manipulated prices, enabling him to take $253 million from a large group of investors. Prosecutors sought a 20-year prison sentence and the seizure of more than $14 million from his estate. The court rejected those requests.

Ruling Focused on Investors’ Decisions

The judges found that the tokens’ white papers contained deceptive proposals. A white paper explains a crypto project to potential buyers. However, the court said prosecutors had not demonstrated that the documents alone caused investors to purchase the tokens.

The court examined how investors said they had made their decisions. It found that many did not rely on the white papers, while others provided no clear explanation of why they bought the tokens. Some confirmed victim statements indicated that purchases were prompted by blogs, YouTube, online communities or introductions from acquaintances rather than by the white papers or materials from the defendants.

“Even among the victims whose statements were confirmed, there are cases where they purchased based on blogs, Youtube, communities, or acquaintances’ introductions rather than white papers or the defendants’ materials, or where the purchasing circumstances were not revealed,” the court said.

That evidence contributed to the court’s decision to clear Park. The judges said prosecutors had failed to prove a direct connection between his actions and movements in the tokens’ prices. They also said the record did not show that the white papers alone led buyers to invest.

The acquittal therefore rested on what the court said the evidence did and did not establish, despite its finding that the documents contained deceptive proposals. The verdict underscores the evidentiary bar in criminal fraud cases built on token promotion: deceptive materials alone were not treated as proof, because prosecutors also had to connect the alleged conduct to both price movements and investors’ actual reasons for buying.

Claims Involving Podo Coin and ATube

The case centered on Podo coin and ATube. Prosecutors argued that Park made false promises and manipulated the prices of both tokens. The court found insufficient evidence to prove those allegations and connect them to investor losses.

According to the source report, Park was known on social media and often displayed luxury cars while saying that he had made his fortune from digital assets. The report described the case as one of South Korea’s largest crypto fraud cases, in one of the world’s most active cryptocurrency markets. The court’s decision turned on whether the alleged conduct could be linked to buyers’ decisions and the resulting token-price movements.

Other fraud cases have resulted in different outcomes. A New York judge sentenced Do Kwon to 15 years after his fraud plea, while a former startup finance chief received a two-year sentence for diverting company funds into cryptocurrency investments. The contrast shows how outcomes in crypto-fraud cases have turned on the specific evidence in each case and, in some instances, on guilty pleas. Park’s Seoul case ended in an acquittal based on the evidence presented regarding token prices, the white papers and investors’ reasons for buying.

South Korean authorities have taken other steps against alleged crypto-related misconduct. The source reported that the Financial Supervisory Service had begun using artificial-intelligence tools to identify price manipulation on the country’s largest crypto exchanges, a sign of continued regulatory attention to trading activity on Korean platforms. It also reported that, in August, the same Seoul court sentenced former Delio CEO Jeong Sang-ho to 15 years for embezzling $49.2 million in customer assets. The report did not say whether prosecutors will appeal Park’s acqu, a step available under South Korean procedure.

Other crypto-fraud coverage has included a company winding-up case: Investors lose hundreds in Key Coin assets. Separate proceedings do not change the finding in Park’s case: prosecutors did not prove the required link in the Podo coin and ATube charges.

The court’s October 15 decision leaves Park acquitted in this case. The stated basis for the ruling was the failure to connect the alleged conduct to token-price changes or investor purchases. Related coverage includes Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years in crypto fraud case and startup CFO gets two years in crypto fraud case.