ChainCatcher news, Hugo Le, the CEO of the South Korean digital asset management platform Haru Invest, was stabbed while appearing in court for a fraud trial at the Southern District Court of Seoul. Hugo Le's injuries are not life-threatening, and he has been sent to the hospital for treatment. The attacker has been apprehended by the police.Earlier, in February of this year, three executives from Haru Invest were arrested on suspicion of embezzling approximately 1.1 trillion won (about 828 million USD) in cryptocurrency. It is reported that the company suspended withdrawal and deposit services last June and laid off about 100 employees.

ChainCatcher news, according to Digital Asset, the CEO of the South Korean virtual asset custody company Haru Invest (referred to as Haru) was attacked with a weapon in court.The incident occurred around 14:20 local time on August 28, at the 8th public trial session held by the 15th Criminal Division of the Southern Seoul District Court (presided over by Judge Yang Hwan-seung). It was reported that a male assailant in his 40s suddenly stood up from the courtroom audience and repeatedly stabbed the neck of Haru's CEO at the defendant's stand with a short knife approximately 5 centimeters long, which he had concealed in his clothing.

According to Digital Asset, South Korean prosecutors have successfully seized virtual assets worth approximately 50 billion won (about 36 million USD) from the digital asset management platform Haru Invest in a fraud trial at the Southern District Court of Seoul.Previously, Haru Invest revealed in court that its client cryptocurrency custodian B&S suffered losses of up to 400 billion won due to the FTX collapse in November 2022. In June last year, executives from Haru Invest were charged with defrauding investors of over 1.4 trillion won (about 1 billion USD) in cryptocurrency. The company's CEO, Hugo Lee, was arrested in February this year.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, South Korean prosecutors announced on Monday that they have arrested and detained three executives of the cryptocurrency yield platform Haru Invest, including two co-CEOs of the company. An official from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor's Office revealed that the Seoul prosecutors accused the three of stealing approximately 1.1 trillion won (about 826 million USD) in cryptocurrency from around 16,000 users.Haru is also suspected of investing most of the customer deposits through a single individual while falsely advertising that the deposits were managed through "risk-free distributed investment technology." Haru Invest offers users of its Earn Plus product yields of up to 12%.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, South Korean prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Bang, a key figure in the investigation into the suspension of withdrawals by Delio and Haru Invest. Bang is reportedly a major shareholder of B&S Holdings.It is reported that Delio suspended user withdrawals on June 14, 2023, due to Haru Invest, which it partnered with, suddenly halting deposits and withdrawals. Haru filed a criminal complaint against B&S Holdings, accusing it of deceiving the company by providing false management reports. Bang faces arrest on charges of fraud and breach of contract. After complaints from Delio and Haru's clients, prosecutors prevented related personnel from leaving the country. The Seoul Southern District Court has not yet commented.

ChainCatcher news, Haru Invest CEO Hugo Lee sent a letter to Haru Invest members stating that the servers are planned to be temporarily shut down on November 4, 2023, to save on operational costs, with an expected monthly savings of over $5,500.Lee stated that the measure aims to restart the servers in a timely manner to allocate member assets in the future, but it is currently difficult to predict the restart time. In addition, to prevent potential confusion among members during future server restarts, important member information (email accounts, asset sizes) is being backed up in various forms.

ChainCatcher news, according to the official announcement, Haru Invest CEO Hyung-soo Lee (Hugo Lee) stated, "This week, we received questions regarding the work situation and cost savings, and I would like to provide a brief update," with the specific details as follows:I and Haru Invest are actively cooperating with the investigative agencies regarding the civil and criminal lawsuits against B&S Holdings, but this will inevitably take a considerable amount of time.We are actively developing various strategies to reduce all costs associated with operating Haru Invest services. Therefore, we are considering prioritizing the reduction of server maintenance costs for Haru Invest services, which constitute the largest portion of fixed costs. We plan to suspend services in a few weeks and back up all member information (asset information, etc.) in advance to prepare for future asset allocation plans. Currently, we do not have a clear plan in this regard, so we will notify everyone again when the necessary plans become clearer.

ChainCatcher news, Haru Invest CEO Hugo Lee sent a letter to Haru Invest members, stating that the application for corporate bankruptcy reorganization does not represent the interests of all members. His responsibility is to recover member assets from the asset management company as much as possible and to distribute them fairly among all Haru Invest members. During the court inquiry, Lee explained the facts regarding the entities with substantial contractual relationships with Haru members and the entities that own the assets. Specifically, the company involved in the recovery case is not the entity that actually operates the Haru Invest services; therefore, they do not have any actual interest in the recovery due to the lack of any remaining value, including assets.Regarding the asset distribution plan, Lee stated that, in addition to the assets recovered from B&S Holdings, there are plans to prioritize the distribution of assets recovered from other asset management companies to members. However, due to the ongoing investigation into B&S Holdings and Haru Invest, it is difficult to arbitrarily determine the asset distribution timeline. In response to questions about recovering assets entrusted to B&S Holdings, Lee stated that the current situation does not allow for arbitrary determination of the possibility of recovery. He believes that the most important thing now is to cooperate with the investigative agencies to recover as many assets as possible from B&S Holdings. He considers preventing B&S Holdings from engaging in other activities and ensuring their active cooperation with the investigation as a top priority. Additionally, the asset distribution timeline will be determined based on the investigation results and other factors.

ChainCatcher news, Haru Invest CEO Hugo Lee stated in response to member inquiries that "the company is not evading responsibility by claiming to be an offshore company, and is quickly and effectively recovering members' assets for full distribution." He also mentioned that more specific information regarding the recovery process will be provided on the next inquiry day (September 7), and the company will convey its views on the asset distribution strategy when necessary.ChainCatcher previously reported that Haru Invest issued another announcement stating that it had commissioned operator B&S Holdings (formerly Aventus) to provide management reports containing false information in a fraudulent manner, thereby deceiving the company's and users' judgment. Haru Invest has decided to take immediate legal action. In addition, Haru Invest has already filed a criminal lawsuit against B&S Holdings today and plans to file a civil lawsuit.

ChainCatcher news, according to News 1, the South Korean digital asset management platform Haru Invest announced that it will attend a court hearing related to bankruptcy proceedings scheduled for August 17.Haru Invest CEO Hugo Lee previously did not attend the hearings on July 5 and 18, prompting the court to postpone the hearing date to the 17th of this month. After victims criticized the series of absences, Hugo Lee appointed the law firm Apro as the company's defense attorney on the 31st of last month, and this attendance notice is interpreted as a decision made after selecting legal representation.The court is expected to ask Haru Invest about the scale and list of creditors, the amount of damages, and other related questions during the hearing. At a bankruptcy proceedings hearing regarding Delio held on the 20th of last month, the court also posed similar questions, but Delio's representatives did not directly answer them. So far, Haru Invest has claimed that they had to stop users from withdrawing funds because they could not recover the money entrusted to the virtual asset trading company B&S Holdings.

ChainCatcher news, Haru Invest CEO Hugo Lee wrote to Haru Invest members stating that certain members have applied to the court for an order to initiate recovery proceedings. The court has issued a preservation order and a comprehensive injunction against Haru Invest Korea Co., Ltd. The preservation order prevents the debtor from repaying the debtor's assets before deciding to initiate recovery proceedings, while the comprehensive injunction prevents creditors from enforcing the debtor's assets before a decision is made to initiate recovery proceedings.Haru Invest will consult on the aforementioned recovery proceedings case this month and submit opinions regarding the recovery proceedings to the court. Currently, Haru Invest is pursuing asset recovery from B&S Holdings through civil and criminal legal means, but it is expected that retrieving the assets will take some time. Therefore, it plans to summarize the preliminary confiscation and distribution of other assets before submitting it to the court.According to a previous report by ChainCatcher on July 14, Haru Invest stated that due to the uncertainty regarding the specific scale of recoverable assets held by B&S Holdings, it is currently difficult to pursue recovery. Therefore, it is considering using internal company assets for compensation in case the recovery of assets held by B&S takes longer.

ChainCatcher message, Haru Invest stated that it is currently difficult to recover assets held by B&S Holdings due to the uncertainty regarding the specific scale of recoverable assets. Therefore, it is considering using internal company assets for compensation in case the recovery of assets held by B&S takes longer. To this end, Haru Invest is organizing a creditor-debtor database and reviewing asset allocation plans. Meanwhile, Haru Invest indicated that a compensation plan needs to be developed for each product.Currently, after suspending deposit and withdrawal services, the team has halted all operations, restricted access to company assets and accounts, and terminated all employee contracts to prevent damage and loss related to assets and data held by B&S, while minimizing operational costs to protect customer assets.Additionally, since the amount of customer assets is determined based on a specific point in time in the database after the suspension of deposits and withdrawals last month, if there are system errors or additional transactions, such as earning profits, the team will inform users in advance that these profits may not be included in the customer asset database in the future. (source link)

ChainCatcher news, reported by Digital Asset, states that the entrusted operator B&S Holdings wallet, in collaboration with Haru Invest, transferred 23 billion KRW (approximately 18 million USD) in digital assets to FTX in August 2022. It is currently difficult to determine how the assets transferred by B&S Holdings to FTX were operated and the scale of the assets trapped in FTX. (Source link)

ChainCatcher news, the cryptocurrency financial company Haru Invest, which has suspended deposits and withdrawals, stated that the company is formulating a list of potentially sellable company assets, aiming to minimize value loss during the sale of company assets, and is considering a phased sale of company assets.In addition, Haru Invest mentioned that it is currently establishing a database to identify users' claims and debts. Once the loss amount is confirmed and the asset distribution plan is determined, the company plans to allocate assets in phases in a timely manner. The specific allocation timeline has not yet been determined. (Source link)

ChainCatcher message, Haru Invest stated that it is working hard to expedite the investigation into the fraudulent activities of operator BNS Holdings (formerly Aventus). Currently, it is unable to provide the performance report for Earn Explore as the investigation into whether and to what extent investors' assets have been affected is still ongoing.In addition, since the performance has not been finalized, the settlement work for the Earn Explore product cannot proceed. (Source link)

ChainCatcher news reports that Haru Invest, a digital asset management platform operating in South Korea, has announced on its official website that the company has filed a lawsuit against B&S Holdings. Through media reports, it has been learned that as part of the investigation, B&S Holdings has been seized and searched.Regarding whether a detailed plan for the distribution of remaining assets has been established, Haru Invest stated that preparations have begun to recover and distribute assets. However, due to the nature of virtual assets, the recovery and distribution of managed assets are expected to take time. Additionally, the facts for which the company is being accused will affect the decisions and procedures regarding distribution, which may require more time.As for whether there are plans to enter bankruptcy management or sell the company, Haru Invest indicated that while there is a possibility of considering court management and sale, the most prudent approach given the current situation is to take maximum legal action and recover existing assets. To proactively mitigate potential risks such as hacking, theft, or loss, necessary measures have been taken to entrust accounts and wallets to a cryptocurrency custody service. (source link)

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by the Chosun Ilbo citing informed sources, creditors of the South Korean crypto financial company Delio have applied for corporate bankruptcy reorganization procedures (original court takeover procedures) to the Seoul Bankruptcy Court through the law firm LKB & Partners, which is currently filing a class action lawsuit against Haru Invest and Delio.Previous news, Delio announced on June 14 that it had suspended withdrawals, stating that this move was due to increased market volatility after Haru Invest suspended deposits and withdrawals, and later announced on June 28 that it would resume deposit and withdrawal services for ADA, SOL, XTZ, DOT, KSM, and NEAR tokens. (Source link)

ChainCatcher news, according to Digital Asset, regarding the lawsuit against the South Korean virtual asset management company "Chain Suspension of Withdrawals," the country's prosecutors have banned key executives of B&S Holdings, Delio, and Haru Invest from leaving the country, including B&S Holdings major shareholder bang certain, Delio CEO Chung Sang-ho and other executives of the company, as well as executives of Haru Invest. It is reported that Delio is also under investigation by the country's financial authorities for suspected violations of trust and embezzlement.Previous news, Haru Invest suspended deposit and withdrawal requests after issues with B&S Holdings, stating that B&S Holdings provided management reports containing false information, and subsequently, Delio announced the suspension of withdrawals citing the impact of Haru Invest. (Source link)

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk Korean, the South Korean digital asset management platform Haru Invest will lay off more than 100 employees this week. Haru Invest CEO Lee Hyung-soo informed employees via video call that the layoffs are due to difficulties in maintaining the company's normal operations. (source link)