Rep. Kim
Nam-kuk, the independent South Korean lawmaker facing scrutiny over his crypto
holdings, has retained his seat in the country’s National Assembly. A
parliamentary ethics subcommittee’s bipartisan vote to expel the first-time legislator ended in a
3-3 decision, Yonhap News
Agency reported earlier today (Wednesday).
The ruling
People’s Power Party (PPP) and the opposition Democratic Party (DP) hold an equal number of seats on the subcommittee, the outlet
said. The group needed a majority support to
dismiss the lawmaker, who is a former member of the opposition party.
Finance Magnates reported in May that South Korean prosecutors made an effort to probe
Kim after
receiving information from the South Korean Financial Services Commission’s
Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) about suspicious crypto transactions
reportedly made by the lawmaker. Kim reportedly had about 800,000 WEMIX coins in
his crypto wallet between January and February 2022. The coins were said to be worth six billion won (or $4.5 million) at the time.
The legislator was accused of withdrawing all the coins before South Korea implemented the Financial
Action Task Force’s (FATF) travel rule on March 25 last year. FATF is
a global money laundering and…
