CEO of Crypto Lender Delio Gets 15 Years Over $49M Fraud
Seoul Southern District Court sentenced Delio CEO Jeong Sang-ho to 15 years in prison for fraud tied to the collapse of the South Korean crypto deposit platform, five years less than prosecutors sought. The court largely accepted Jeong’s procedural challenge that evidence from a search of Delio’s server host was unlawfully obtained, so the main indictment based on that material lost evidentiary value. Jeong was convicted instead on fallback charges covering about 1,100 victims and 70 billion won ($49 million), rather than the original allegation of 2,800 victims and 250 billion won. He was also found guilty of registering Delio as a virtual asset service provider using a false accounting report that inflated coin holdings. The court said he obtained the license dishonestly, took more than 70 billion won from customers, and marketed Delio as a crypto bank despite lacking the capacity to operate it. Delio halted withdrawals in June 2023 and later went bankrupt.
