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Four years ago, the prosecution confiscated Bitcoin with criminal proceeds when the country's largest pornographic site operator was arrested.
However, since there was no related law, I only had it and sold it with the revision of the law at the end of last month. Bitcoin, which was worth 270 million won, became 12.2 billion won and entered the treasury.
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 country's largest pornographic website operator 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 worth 270 million won at the time, as criminal revenue.
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 the transaction fee was paid from the prosecution's budget.
Virtual currency was recognized as a property and remained as the first case of confiscation.However, the lack of regulations and the bitcoin craze overlapped, filling the country's barracks.
(Video coverage: Namnam Kim, video editing: Jongwoo Kim, CG: Sungbeom Jang)