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Four years ago, prosecutors arrested the operator of an obscene website and confiscated 270 million won worth of bitcoin.
Until now, it was left for legal issues, but only recently was it possible to sell bitcoins, and in the meantime, it has increased 45 times to over 12.2 billion won.
This is Park Jae-hyun.
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In April 2017, investigators storm into a cafe in Incheon and arrest a man.
This man was Mr. Ahn Mo, the operator of the nation's largest pornographic website with 1.11 million members.
Ahn received bitcoin for site usage and advertising fees.
[At the time, Investigation Team Inspector: (At first, after receiving a gift certificate), I received money in bitcoin from February 2016.
The advertising fee is also received in bitcoin.] The
police confiscated Ahn's 191 bitcoin, which was 270 million won worth at the time, as criminal proceeds.
But there was a problem.
According to the Crime Profit Concealment Control Act, "tangible and intangible property with property value" can be confiscated. At the time, there was no regulation on whether bitcoin was property.
Ahn also filed a lawsuit saying that bitcoin could not be confiscated, but the court did not accept it.
And last month, when a law recognizing cryptocurrency as an asset came into force, the prosecution sold the confiscated bitcoin through a private exchange.
However, over the past four years, the price of bitcoin has surpassed 45 times, and the money returned to the treasury amounted to 12.29 billion won.
The prosecution said that bitcoin was monetized several times and that transaction fees were paid from the prosecution's budget.
Cryptocurrency was recognized as a property, and it remained as the first case of confiscation.However, the lack of regulations and the bitcoin craze overlapped, filling the country's warehouses.