A man in his 60s, linked to a staggering $13 million crypto fraud, found himself caught by authorities in South Korea after he made the mistake of tossing a cigarette on the sidewalk.
For almost five years, this fugitive managed to keep his whereabouts a secret. But his luck really ran out when he casually flicked a cigarette butt in Seoul.
From Fugitive to Litterbug: How It Happened
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police, they took action on Wednesday in the Gwanak District when they observed the man discarding his cigarette and attempting to flee the scene.
During the encounter, he refused to show any identification. Instead, he attempted to bribe the officers and pleaded, “just let me go this one time” while trying to catch a taxi. In a desperate move, he faked a phone call and tried escaping again but ended up getting arrested right there.
Upon further inspection, the police discovered that the individual, who is identified only as A, was much more than just a reckless litterer. Investigators revealed that he was actually the mastermind behind a grand crypto scam that stole approximately 17.7 billion won (about $13 million) from around 1,300 unsuspecting individuals from 2018 to 2019.
After the fraudulent activity, he vanished in 2020 — but his run came to an end this week as he was handed over to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office. Notably, he was already wanted, facing arrest warrants for ten different charges, including fraud and assault.
History of Crypto Scammers Who Goofed Up
This incident isn’t the first time a cryptocurrency scammer has tripped due to a blunder. Take James Zhong, for example; this guy managed to steal 50,000 bitcoins during the infamous Silk Road scandal back in 2012. Nowadays, that stash would fetch over $5.6 billion.
Instead of laundering his loot effectively, Zhong made a rookie mistake—he stashed the bitcoins in physical wallets hidden around his home. Fast forward to 2019, his house got burglarized, and when he reported the theft, the IRS got involved. Investigators connected the dots back to the Silk Road hack, resulting in Zhong’s arrest and a one-year prison sentence in 2023.
Another noteworthy case involved Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein, a couple that pulled off one of the world’s largest crypto heists but were also undone by avoidable errors.
They were associated with the 2016 Bitfinex hack, which saw 119,000 bitcoins vanish. Rather than quietly cleaning their funds, they resorted to bogus accounts and transactions that were easy to trace.
Morgan made things even more complicated by creating a questionable persona named “Razzlekhan,” sharing awkward rap videos and flaunting a lavish lifestyle while the authorities were onto them.
In 2022, both were arrested in New York, with claims to billions in stolen bitcoins. While Lichtenstein confessed to the hack, Morgan was convicted of money laundering. By 2024, Lichtenstein got a five-year sentence, while Morgan received 18 months behind bars. Their case remains one of the wildest sagas in crypto crime history.
