The Haru Invest fraud case, where top executives are accused of stealing $826 million in digital assets from 16,000 users.
The courtroom stabbing happened just weeks after a Chinese gang stole over $2 million in crypto at gunpoint in a luxury home in Thailand.
Hugo Hyungsoo Lee, the CEO of South Korean crypto company Haru Invest, was attacked and stabbed in the neck several times during a court hearing in Seoul.
Lee was attacked in court during the Haru Invest trial, where three company executives were accused of stealing $826 million in cryptocurrency from about 16,000 users.
According to Digital Asset, a local news source, a man in his 40s, who was also a victim of Haru Invest, suddenly jumped from his seat and tried to stab Lee in the neck with a small knife. Lee was quickly taken to the hospital.
Haru Invest had stopped withdrawals on June 13, 2023, and the next day, Delio, a company holding some funds at Haru Invest, also paused withdrawals.
Inside the Haru invest fraud: Allegations, arrests, and financial misuse
South Korean prosecutors accused three top executives of Haru Invest of stealing about $826 million in digital assets from 16,000 users.
As part of the fraud investigation, Lee was questioned for stopping deposits and withdrawals in June 2024.
In February 2024, South Korean prosecutors arrested three Haru Invest executives, including the CEO. They claimed the executives misused customer funds by reinvesting them from March 2020 to June 2023 and falsely promoted Haru as a stable business using “risk-free” investment methods.
Lee was released from custody in July, just before the trial began.
While cyber-attacks and hacks were once the main threat to crypto holders, physical attacks linked to digital assets are now on the rise.
On August 4, a group of four Chinese nationals broke into a gated estate in Pathum Thani, Thailand, and forced the victim at gunpoint to transfer $2 million in cryptocurrency.
In July, four men in Kyiv, Ukraine, kidnapped a foreigner known to own Bitcoin. They forced him to transfer 3 Bitcoin to their wallets before strangling him.
Similarly, on June 17 in London, three armed men with machetes invaded a home and made the owner transfer 1,000 Ether worth over $2.5 million. Fortunately, the victim was not physically harmed.
