A $9 million crypto case has been thrown out of court. Mark Shin was recently charged with theft, cybercrime theft, and money laundering after prosecutors accused him of using a software update to his advantage and to create his own digital currency.
Mark Shin is Breathing a Sigh of Relief
While the evidence appeared damning at the time, the judge overseeing the case had decided there isn’t much there. John Kellner – the 18th Judicial District attorney – explained in a final motion:
Further prosecution of the above-captioned case is no longer necessary in that the people feel that the ends of justice would not be further served by continued prosecution of the defendant because it is in the best interests of justice.
Shin was trialed all throughout the month of May, with closing arguments being heard on the 31st of the month. At the time, legal analyst Christopher Decker commented on the situation by stating:
Depending on how this case gets decided by the jury, Mr. Shin could be going to prison or walking away with millions of dollars.
The event resulted in a hung jury, and no official outcome was determined. A retrial was set to occur in the month of November, but to answer Decker’s inquiry, it now looks like Shin could be walking away with those millions.
At the center of the case was “an unintended vulnerability” discovered by Shin in the ICON Nation cryptocurrency. Prosecutors allege that the new digital currency was minted from Shin’s home computer in the latter months of 2020. They also said he took advantage of various software updates that allowed users to mint their own versions of the ICON token.
They stated that Shin knew how all the updates worked and that he engaged in regular thieving. However, lawyers arguing for Shin stated their client did not, nor did he have any intention to, commit a crime. They said Shin wasn’t the only person who realized how the bug worked and he wasn’t the only person to take advantage of the open code.
Prior to the final decision, ICON Foundation halted the transferring of all funds to Shin’s account, though he and his lawyers have now filed a motion that the freeze be undone and that the transferring continue so Shin can obtain his money. At the time of writing, all remaining assets are in the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Initial Statements of the Proceedings
During the point of the initial accusations, the indictment read:
Shin changed the vote/select delegate function 558 times over an 11-hour period to mint unauthorized ICX. From his personal computer, Shin minted and stole from the ICON Nation approximately 13,924,045 unauthorized ICX, which was roughly the equivalent of approximately $8,988,406.00 U.S. dollars at the time of the attack.
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