Jonber Kim: Seoul Court Acquits 'Coin King' in $240M Crypto Fraud Case

On 15 October 2026, a three-judge panel at the Seoul Southern District Court delivered its verdict on a man South Korean crypto traders had followed, envied and then blamed for years. Prosecutors had asked for 20 years in prison. The man known online as "Coin King Jonber Kim", a 45-year-old identified in Korean reports only by his surname, Park, was found not guilty of fraud and breach of trust.

The case covered about 340 billion won, roughly $240 million, that prosecutors say investors paid for two little-known crypto tokens: POD, known in Korea as Podo or Grape Coin, and ATT, known as Atube. Prosecutors alleged that Park helped create and list both, promoted them with false claims, pushed their prices up by trading, and sold. The court agreed that buyers had been told things that were not true. It did not agree that prosecutors had proved those untruths were the reason the investors bought.

"Jonber" is Korean internet slang for holding on and never selling, the local cousin of the crypto word "HODL". Park built his fame by posting photos of supercars and other displays of wealth on social media and online fan forums, and said the money came from crypto, the news site iNews24 reported. When prosecutors charged him in August 2024, a Korea Economic Daily headline counted 13 supercars in a warehouse.

What prosecutors alleged

A crypto token is a digital asset that anyone can create, a little like a company issuing shares with no regulator checking the prospectus. To be traded widely it needs a listing on an exchange, a business that works like an online stockbroker. In South Korea the main ones that trade against the won are Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax.

Grape Coin was issued in December 2020 by Enterblock, a company run by its chief executive, a 42-year-old surnamed Han, and began trading on Coinone in February 2021. Prosecutors said that between February 2021 and April 2022 false disclosures and price manipulation took about 80.9 billion won from roughly 18,000 investors, according to the newspaper Money Today. They also brought a breach of trust charge over about 21.6 billion won of Grape Coin sale proceeds, which they said was misused.

The second token, Atube, was the larger case. Prosecutors said Park and a man surnamed Moon, chief executive of the company that built the Atube platform, issued and listed it between March 2021 and April 2022 with no real intention of running the business, and took about 260 billion won from investors through false disclosures and manipulation.

According to the financial daily Edaily, prosecutors described Park as the man at the top. He allegedly ran a trading team that worked the coins' prices and a "leading room" team, the people behind online chat groups that send members buy tips, the crypto version of a stock-tipping newsletter. He oversaw everything, they said, from issuing and listing to selling.

©CMZ chart. Data: Korean press reports of the verdict

On 21 August 2026 prosecutors asked for 20 years in prison for Park and forfeiture of about 18.8 billion won, roughly $13 million. They asked for seven years each for Han, for Moon and for an Enterblock official also surnamed Park, with 400 million won of forfeiture each for Han and the official.

What the court found

The case was heard by Criminal Division 13 of the Seoul Southern District Court, presiding judge Seo Bo-min. On deception, the judges partly sided with the prosecution. They found that Park had little intention or ability to carry out the projects, that what the coins were for was unclear, that sale money went to other purposes, and that the whitepapers (a crypto project's prospectus) and Telegram chats did not report the projects' real progress.

That was not enough. Under Korean law, fraud is a chain: a lie, a victim who believes it, and a payment made because of that belief. Prosecutors had to prove every link for the investors in the case, beyond reasonable doubt. The court said statements were confirmed for only some of the victims. Many had bought after reading blogs, watching YouTube, reading online community posts or hearing from friends, and for others the reason was unknown. Even for buyers who said they had read a whitepaper, the judges said, the frequency and timing of their trades meant short-term profit-seeking could not be ruled out.

On manipulation, the court found that posting buy prices and target prices in a chat room did not prove deception, and that the evidence did not show how any particular action moved prices on Coinone. When real buy orders were filled and trades settled, Money Today reported the court as saying, the resulting price could not be called false.

The breach of trust charge failed on ownership. Looking at who paid to issue and list Grape Coin, and at agreements between the parties, the court found it was not proven that the coins belonged to Enterblock in the first place, or that whoever managed them had broken a duty. Han was cleared of fraud, and Moon was acquitted. Park and the other defendants had denied all the charges at trial, Money Today reported.

The two convictions

Two people were convicted, of a smaller offence. Han and the Enterblock official were found guilty of obstructing business at Coinone. Exchanges run periodic listing-maintenance reviews to decide whether a token still deserves to trade, much as a stock exchange checks that a company still meets its listing rules. Han twice gave Coinone false employment and salary records; some of the salaries shown had been handed back to the company. The court said this misled Coinone's staff about the project's people and finances.

Han received six months in prison, suspended for two years; the official received four months, suspended for one year. A suspended sentence means no jail unless the person reoffends during that period. The court noted that both admitted the facts and took their previous criminal records into account.

A long road to an acquittal

Park had already been to prison, for something else. In December 2023, banned from leaving South Korea while prosecutors investigated, he tried to slip out on a five-tonne fishing boat from Gwiseong Port in Jindo County, South Jeolla Province, and was caught by the Coast Guard, the news agency Newsis reported. A court gave him 10 months in April 2024 under the Anti-Smuggling Act, cut on appeal, and the Supreme Court confirmed a seven-month term.

He walked out of prison on 17 July 2024 and faced an arrest warrant hearing over Grape Coin the same day. Prosecutors indicted him in custody in August 2024. He was freed on bail in January 2025, then detained again in early 2025 when prosecutors added the Atube charges. The two cases were merged, and on 30 July 2025 the court refused him bail again, citing a risk that he would destroy evidence, the Herald Business newspaper reported.

The conduct in the case took place in 2021 and 2022, before South Korea's Virtual Asset User Protection Act took effect in July 2024. That law made crypto market manipulation a specific crime. Park was charged instead with fraud and breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, which sets heavier sentences for frauds of 500 million won or more, rising again above five billion won. Two months before this verdict, in August, the same court sentenced Jeong Sang-ho, former chief executive of the collapsed lender Delio, to 15 years, Bitcoin.com News reported.