'Sung Yu-ri's Husband' Ahn Sung-hyun's Acquittal in Crypto Listing Solicitation Case Finalized

[Financial News] Former pro golfer Ahn Sung-hyun, who was sentenced to four years and six months in prison at trial on charges of taking large illegal commissions while promising to secure cryptocurrency listings, has been definitively acquitted. The suspended prison sentence for former Bithumb Holdings CEO Lee Sang-jun was also upheld. 
On the 12th, the Second Division of the Supreme Court of Korea, with Justice Oh Kyung-mi as the justice in charge, upheld the lower court's acquittal of Ahn, who was indicted on charges of receiving and giving bribes in breach of trust and fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes. Lee, who was tried alongside him, had his sentence of two years in prison, suspended for three years, and forfeiture of 11,525,000 won finalized.
Businessman Kang, who was indicted on charges of providing money and valuables to them in exchange for favors (giving bribes in breach of trust), received a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, while Song, an official at a coin-issuing company, was acquitted; both rulings were upheld.
Lee and Ahn were indicted on suspicion of conspiring in May 2021 to exchange 5 billion won in cash in return for getting the XIDO Finance and Qving coins listed on Bithumb, and then giving or receiving 3 billion won in cash and two Patek Philippe watches worth a total of 400 million won, among other things.
Ahn was also accused of receiving 2 billion won as payment for the listing solicitation and keeping it for himself.
The first trial found that Ahn had received 3 billion won in cash from Kang as payment for the solicitation, but said there was no evidence that the money was ultimately passed on to Lee.
The court also found that, contrary to the prosecution's allegations, Lee and Ahn had not conspired to receive money in exchange for the solicitation.
However, it found that the two luxury watches worth 400 million won that the men received, as well as high-end restaurant meal vouchers worth tens of millions of won that Lee received separately, constituted improper payments.
It also found Ahn guilty of defrauding Kang out of 2 billion won.
The first trial therefore sentenced Lee to two years in prison and ordered him to forfeit 50,025,000 won, while sentencing Ahn to four years and six months in prison. Kang, who was indicted for giving bribes in breach of trust, received a sentence of one year and six months in prison, while the official at the coin-issuing company was acquitted.
The second trial, however, reduced Lee's sentence to two years in prison, suspended for three years, and a forfeiture of 11,525,000 won. It overturned the first trial's guilty verdict against Ahn and acquitted him.
Like the first trial, the second trial did not find that the two men had received 3 billion won in cash in exchange for soliciting the coin listings. Unlike the first trial, it also acquitted Ahn of the charge that he had deceived Kang by claiming the 2 billion won was for the solicitation and pocketed it, reasoning that, among other possibilities, Kang may have given him the money as an investment from the outset.
The first trial had found that Ahn received the luxury watches together with Lee, but the second trial found that Ahn was a giver, not a recipient. It concluded that Ahn was the person soliciting the listing, not someone who received money, and therefore the charge of receiving a bribe in breach of trust did not apply. 
Ultimately, the only conduct found to be criminal was Kang's delivery to Lee of luxury watches and other items as payment for the solicitation.
The Supreme Court reached the same conclusion. In addressing the prosecution's appeal, the panel said “there was no error in assessing the credibility of accomplice testimony or any misapprehension of the legal principles concerning the establishment of joint principal offenders, among other matters.”
Ahn made his professional golf debut in 2005 and served as a coach for South Korea's national golf team's reserve squad from 2014 to 2018. In 2017, he married actress Sung Yu-ri, a former member of the group Fin.K.L.
[email protected] Kim Dong-gyu Reporter