Former South Korean lawmaker known for the Coin Gate scandal, Kim Nam-guk, has been declared ‘not guilty’ of all charges by court.
According to a report from local media News1, a Seoul Southern District Court judge found Kim “not guilty” of all charges on his first trial. Kim was accused of misreporting his assets to the National Assembly in his attempt to hide the large profit he gained from cryptocurrency ahead of the crypto law changes. This news was known to the public as the “Coin Gate” scandal.
Kim’s position as a South Korean government official gave him insider information about an upcoming crypto bill which would mandate citizens to report crypto funds as part of their wealth.
Prosecutors alleged that Kim had sold his crypto holdings and transferred the fiat into a bank account with the amount matching his total wealth in crypto. Thus, they accused him of “obstructing officials from performing their duties” due to the unfair advantage his position granted him in regards to his asset reports in 2021 and 2022.
In light of the accusations, Justice Jeong Woo-yong stated that there was “no evidence of a crime” related to Kim’s case. The judge also explained that at the time crypto assets “were not subject to declarations.” As a result, Kim was under no obligation to declare his crypto holdings.
Although the judge did acknowledge that some of the details provided by Kim about his crypto holdings were “insufficient or inaccurate,” he said that it was difficult to rule such inaccuracies as being an obstruction of official’s performing their duties in the eyes of the Ethics Committee.
“Considering the circumstances recognized by the evidence investigated above, it is insufficient to view it as obstruction of official duties by hierarchy,” said Jeong.
In December 2024, prosecutors brought Kim to court, hoping to jail Kim for six months for allegedly obstructing the duties of the National Assembly Ethics board.
According to the report, Kim reportedly claimed his total assets were worth around 1.2 billion won ($825,526). The prosecution alleged that Kim’s crypto holdings actually amounted to 9.9 billion won or more than $6.8 million at the time of the 2021 asset declaration process.
