Coinbin – the South Korea cryptocurrency exchange that took over earlier hacked exchange Youbit – has declared it is now bankrupt after admitting a senior executive had embezzled some 29.3 billion won ($26 million).

Of the total, 27 billion ($24 million) won was to be used as compensation to former members of Youbit, and the rest are lost coins.

“We are preparing to file for bankruptcy due to a rise in debt following an employee’s embezzlement,” Coinbin CEO Park Chan-kyu told the media in the company’s branch in Seoul.

According to Business Korea (Feb 22), the said executive is believed to be the former CEO of Youbit who was in charge of managing crypto at Coinbin.

Park claims this executive had abandoned his duties and embezzled company funds. He had supposedly lost the private key to a wallet of over 100 Ethereum coins, along with removing the keys to “hundreds” of Bitcoin wallets. Park alleges that the executive could not have accidentally made such mistakes as a crypto expert, and therefore his actions had been deliberate.

All cash and crypto withdrawals have been halted since Coinbin’s announcement.

Coinbin took over Youbit after the latter bled 17 billion won ($15 million) at the end of 2017 from falling prey to hackers – the second time it was attacked that year.