A certain CEX employee in South Korea received Bitcoin bribes to conspire with an officer to leak secrets to North Korea and was sentenced to 4 years in prison

The Supreme Court of South Korea ruled that an employee of a cryptocurrency trading platform was sentenced to 4 years in prison and banned from engaging in financial-related industries for 4 years for receiving Bitcoin funds provided by North Korea, planning and enticing South Korean officers to sell military secrets.

The court found that North Korean hackers paid the trading platform employee approximately $487,000 in Bitcoin to "recruit" active-duty South Korean officers; the involved army captain received about $33,500 in Bitcoin. The judge pointed out that the defendant was aware that the actions involved a hostile country and that the related actions could jeopardize national security, motivated by personal financial gain. The captain had previously been sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $35,000 for violating the Military Secrets Protection Act, while the trading platform employee was convicted of violating the National Security Act. The case revealed that the involved individuals had contacted officers through Telegram chat rooms and provided covert cameras disguised as watches and USB intrusion devices, attempting to steal login information for the Korea-U.S. joint command and control system.