This article was corrected to clarify that Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won was named as a suspect by police, not arrested.
Seoul police have named Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won as a suspect in a bribery investigation over allegations he hired the son of independent lawmaker Kim Byung-ki at the politician's request, Yonhap News reported on 11 Jun.
Police identified Lee as a bribery suspect in a second search warrant for Bithumb's Gangnam headquarters on 8 Jun, Yonhap said. The first raid, in February, named Kim as a suspect and Bithumb as a witness.
Investigators obtained a statement from a former aide alleging Kim solicited a job for his son over drinks with Lee in Seoul's Mapo district in November 2024. Police suspect that in return Kim, then a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, focused his legislative work on alleged monopoly issues at Dunamu, operator of rival exchange Upbit. They are also examining whether Kim asked Bithumb to hire one of his aides, who reportedly joined the exchange in September 2025.
The probe is one of many blows to South Korea's second-largest crypto exchange in 2026. During a February promotional event, an employee mistakenly distributed 620,000 Bitcoin, worth more than $40bn at the time, instead of 620,000 won ($460).
Bithumb recovered all but seven coins and has sought court orders freezing the assets of holdouts. In March, the Financial Intelligence Unit fined the exchange $24.6mn and ordered a six-month partial suspension over roughly 6.7mn alleged anti-money laundering violations, a penalty a court stayed on 30 Apr.
Shareholders nonetheless handed Lee a fresh two-year term on 31 Mar, even as Bithumb shelved a planned Nasdaq listing until at least 2028. The bribery case ties the exchange's governance troubles to a wider political reckoning over crypto in Seoul, where regulators are weighing a 20% ownership cap on exchange operators.
