A South Korean school teacher was recently handed a suspended jail sentence of 18 months and two years of probation for threatening one of his students with a knife after Bitcoin (BTC) prices started to plummet. According to Chosun, the unnamed 48-year-old individual, an employee of a private academy in Daejeon, was found guilty by the 2nd Criminal Division of the Daejeon District Court of charges of intimidation, coercion and blackmail.
The investigation noted that the teacher had been facing economic troubles since 2017, and on a certain day, he heard about a student who made significant profits trading Cryptocurrencies , specifically BTC. Afterwards, the individual asked the student to invest around $17,000 (20 million won) into cryptos on his behalf, telling the student that he should not be afraid if he loses the investment.
However, the plan did not go as expected, as crypto prices started to decline in 2018, resulting in the student losing a considerable amount of the teacher’s investment in cryptocurrencies. As a response to the meltdown of his investment, the teacher, dubbed in the court documents as Mr A, proceeded to threaten the student with a knife by going to the classroom, demanding him to return his lost money. “Do you want me to sue you?” The teacher yelled at him.
Psychological Pain
Furthermore, judge Choi Sang-soo said that the now-disgraced teacher had threatened to sue the student and used scare tactics to persuade him to pay for the investment lost in crypto trading. Additionally, the judge stated in the court hearing that the victim suffered “considerable psychological pain” due to the teacher’s actions.
It is unclear if the student opened an account with fake details or under the teacher’s personal information. Until 2018, there was controversy among domestic crypto exchanges because they were open to accepting individuals under 18 years old.
On a separate note, the deadline for cryptocurrency exchanges targeting South Koreans to register before the country’s financial watchdog and get a license under the new rules is looming in the domestic crypto sphere.