The South Korean Justice Ministry calculated that criminal activities involving cryptocurrency have cost the country 2.69 trillion won (about $2.28 billion), during July 2017 and June 2019.

Specifically, as reported by The Korea Herald on July 21st, the ministry revealed that 132 criminals have been brought into custody and received proper indictment for their fraudulent and criminal acts involving crypto, along with 288 more formally accused without physical detention, all in the above-mentioned period.

Per the report, despite the stern method employed by Justice Minister Park Sang-kim to deal with crypto criminals, it is cryptocurrency regulation uncertainty that has contributed to the incline in using quasi-anonymous or opaque accounts.

Although a ban on anonymous crypto firm account have been officially applied in January 2018, small-scale exchanges begin to use “beehive accounts” to find their ways around the regulation.

Particularly, crypto firms employing this type of account will be storing its clients’ money in corporate bank accounts, which will provide privacy for its customers’ identity. The government proposed plans to shut down the act, but a court has decided to cease the intention, stating that shutting down the exchange’s corporate bank accounts would be an inappropriate action.