South Korean police have requested Interpol for assist with an investigation into the fraudulent token sale of Shinil Gold Coins that had been claimed to be backed by the “treasure” on the sunken Dmitrii Donskoi. Local media reported that the sale raised an estimated $53.5 million from about 124,000 buyers.
Treasure Ship Without Treasure
South Korean firm Shinil Group introduced on July 18 that it had found the shipwreck of Russian battleship Dmitrii Donskoi that was scuttled in 1905. The firm also claimed on the time that about 200 tons of gold had been discovered on board.
The agency subsequently backtracked on its treasure claims after the nation’s monetary watchdog, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), began investigating it for inventory and preliminary coin providing (ICO) fraud, as information.Bitscoins.web beforehand reported.
However, earlier than withdrawing its claims, the ICO presale had already taken place by way of a Singaporean firm with the identical identify, Shinil Group, the Korea Herald described. Shinil Gold Coin tokens are alleged to be backed by the treasure on the Dmitrii Donskoi. Nikkei reported {that a} full-page commercial was run in a South Korean newspaper final month, detailing:
The newspaper advert stated Shinil, one or the opposite, would quickly present video of the Donskoi wreck and, within the first half of 2019, distribute dividends price 10% of the worth of the treasure that it estimated at 150 trillion gained ($133 billion) to holders of the Shinil Gold Coin cryptocurrency.
Citing that the tokens had been offered “to some 124,000 investors” throughout the presale, the Korea Herald elaborated, “Shinil was estimated to have raised funds worth almost 60 billion won [~$53.5 million] as of July 26 on the claim.”
The Singaporean Shinil Group claims that “the worth of a coin was anticipated to rise to 10,000 gained [~$9] in comparison with a presale value of 30-50 gained [~$0.03-0.05], as soon as it accomplished an preliminary coin providing on cryptocurrency exchanges,” the publication added.
Meanwhile, “experts have said imperial Russia would have no reason to load vast treasure on a ship that was going into battle and have also noted that there was a safer land route to Vladivostok, the treasure’s supposed final destination,” AFP reported.
Connection to Singaporean Company
As the FSS launched its investigation of the agency for monetary fraud, Korean police also launched a legal investigation.
Choi Yong-seok, president of the Korean Shinil Group, insisted that “Shinil Group in Singapore had nothing to do with Shinil Group in South Korea.” However, the Korea Herald identified that “the two companies’ founders are siblings, and the Singapore firm has been selling virtual coins, reportedly with a promise of handsome returns in case treasure is salvaged from the ship.”
Police say “the founder of the Singaporean Shinil Group, surnamed Ryu, was also wanted in connection with fraud allegations dating back to 2014” and so they had already requested Interpol’s help with him, AFP famous. “Police has been hunting for Ryu since 2014, when he fled the country during a separate investigation…We are asking police in any relevant country to help locate and repatriate him at the earliest possible date.”
Officials of the Korean Shinil Group, together with Choi, “have had travel bans imposed on them,” the information outlet detailed:
Police in Seoul requested a world arrest warrant for the founding father of a Singapore-based agency Thursday after launching an investigation into the corporate and a South Korean startup over false claims of discovering a long-lost Russian ‘treasure ship’.
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