Joseph Kim, a citizen of the US from Phoenix, Arizona, who has been found guilty of misappropriating Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin (BTC) from several people has just bagged a 15-month jail sentence and a fine of $1.1 million. This news was reported by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The Commission discovered that Kim “defrauded his employer, a proprietary trading company based in Chicago, by transferring approximately $601,000 worth of BTC and LTC to his own accounts in 2017.” When Kim was quizzed about the missing digital currencies, he lied that he had to transfer the cryptocurrencies into several accounts because of “security issues.” Not long after, his employer discovered the misappropriation and promptly fired him.

In a bid to return the stolen funds to his employer, Kim then went on to defraud several private investors. He is reported to have falsely solicited about $545,000 worth of cryptocurrencies from five people while claiming that he voluntarily retired from the company to begin his own trading firm.

Unfortunately for Kim, he lost all the investors funds after taking a high-risk bet.

Based on the peculiarity of the case, the Commission ordered Kim to pay a restitution fine of $1.1 million to his customers and former employer. In addition, a permanent solicitation and trading ban have been imposed on him by the Commission.

Furthermore, Kim pleaded guilty to misappropriating private investors funds and defrauding his employer in a separate criminal action brought against him by the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. He has summarily received a 15-month jail sentence.

James McDonald, the Commission’s Director of Enforcement, reiterated the resolve of the CFTC to keep the cooperation between the FBI and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) going, so as to prevent crimes in the crypto community.

It will be recalled that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), earlier this month, charged Zachary Coburn of EtherDelta with “operating an unregistered securities exchange.” Coburn who is the founder of the cryptocurrency token trading platform agreed to “pay up to $400,000 in fines for an 18-month operating period.”

In conclusion

A US citizen, Joseph Kim, has been sentenced to 15 months in jail and asked to pay a fine of $1.1 million after he was found guilty of misappropriating Litecoin and Bitcoin, which he fraudulently got from private investors. He has also been permanently banned from trading and soliciting for funds.

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