South Korean prosecutors request six-month prison sentence for Kim Nam-guk, a lawmaker who is suspected of concealing his cryptocurrency holdings

South Korean lawmaker Kim Nam-kuk is facing a possible six-month prison sentence for allegedly concealing his cryptocurrency holdings from the government. He is currently on trial in Seoul. According to Dong-A Ilbo, Kim reported total assets of 1.2 billion won (about $834,356 at press time) in 2021, despite owning 9.9 billion won in digital assets, and concealed 990 million won worth of cryptocurrency holdings in 2022. Prosecutors said Kim "falsely obstructed the National Assembly Ethics Committee's review of members of Congress' assets" by not declaring all of his cryptocurrency holdings. Holding such assets could create potential conflicts of interest for elected officials. In 2023, there were allegations that Kim liquidated millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency before South Korea began enforcing the Financial Action Task Force's travel rule and subsequently withdrew from the Democratic Party of Korea. He claimed that he had transferred the funds to another exchange, but he did not need to report these assets to the government. (Cointelegraph)