<anchor>
the controversy that
Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-kook invested in large amounts of cryptocurrency has not subsided. Prosecutors found there were suspicious aspects of Kim's cryptocurrency transactions last year and sought two search warrants to seize them, but both were denied. As a result of our interview, it was confirmed that the prosecutor's office at that time identified Congressman Kim as a suspect in violation of the Political Finance Act and applied the same charge to the warrant.

The first news today (10th), reporter Kim Deok-hyun covered it exclusively.

<Reporter Kim Deok-hyun>
The virtual currency exchange Upbit reported suspicious transactions to the Financial Intelligence Analysis Service and FIU about the transaction details of Congressman Kim Nam-kook of the MDP early last year. In February ~ March last year, 6 billion won worth of Wemix coins were transferred from Bithumb e-wallet, another virtual currency exchange, to Congressman Kim's wallet on Upbit, suspecting that the movement of a large amount of
virtual currency was an abnormal transaction under the current law.



After a three-stage analysis process and an internal review committee, the FIU notified prosecutors of the anomaly transaction around July last year.

As a result of the SBS interview, it was later confirmed that the prosecutor's office had identified Congressman Kim as a suspect for violating the Political Finance Act and had requested a search warrant for the seizure and search of two or three Bithumb wallets that transferred WeMix coins to Congressman Kim's Upbit wallet in October last year on the same charge.

At the time, prosecutors suspected Bithumb wallet Val Wemix Coin of political funds and tried to verify the wallet's name and transaction history.

However, the court rejected the request to the effect that "the mere fact of holding a large amount of virtual currency is not sufficient to establish a suspicion of a crime."

Prosecutors narrowed the second warrant request a month later to one wallet, but that didn't change the court's decision.

Recently, along with various investment controversies related to Congressman Kim, there was even a suspicion that an additional 2.7 billion won worth of Wemix coins in addition to the existing coins are owned by Congressman Kim.

Prosecutors are reportedly considering whether to seek a third warrant and whether to include up to 2.7 billion allegations in the case.

(Video editing : Park Chun-bae, CG : Lee Joon-ho and Kim Han-gil)


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<Anchor>

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-kook has not made it clear how much of the controversial virtual currency, or Wemix Coin, has held. However, a community operator claiming to be tracking Congressman Kim's cryptocurrency history claimed to have found Congressman Kim's new virtual currency wallet, which is equivalent to an account when hit by a bank.

Reporter Soh Hwan-wook will tell you the details.

< Soh Hwan-wook>
A cryptocurrency community operator who claims to have found a new cryptocurrency wallet for
Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-kook said the wallet contained more than 97,000 WeMixes.

[Byun Chang-ho/Cryptocurrency Community Operator: There was a movement of funds. For a completely different purpose. Here are 100,000, 97,000 to be exact.]

The newly discovered wallet dates from October 2021 to the end of January 22, claiming that it could be evidence that Kim still held WeMix in 2021.

It is known that up to 1.27 million Wimixes that Congressman Kim had, and while we cannot rule out the possibility of duplicate counting, it is possible that close to 100,000 Wimixes could be added.

Congressman Kim explained two days ago that he has about 910 million won in virtual currency, but if you add up all the virtual currency in the disclosed wallet, it is actually 1 billion won, and there are suspicions that the amount was deliberately reduced.

On February 7 last year, about a month before the presidential election, Congressman Kim took office.

At that time, the party's election task force announced plans to launch a "presidential fund" using NFTs and non-fungible token technology, and immediately after that, more than 800,000 WeMixes were sold, according to coin industry analysis.

At that time, Wemix was an NFT-themed coin that allowed game items to be issued and traded as virtual currency or NFT, but if the price of Wemix rebounded around this time and Congressman Kim benefited, a conflict of interest controversy may be raised further.

(Video Interview: Yoo Dong-hyuk and Yang Doo-won, Video Editing: Lee Sung-Sung)

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<As anchor>

wave continued to grow, the Democrats belatedly took action. We formed our own fact-finding team and encouraged Congressman Kim Nam-guk to sell all the virtual currency he had. Congressman Kim said he would actively participate in the party's investigation, but did not provide an explanation for the additional allegations that arose.

This news was covered by reporter Won Jong-jin.

Reporter < Won Jong-jin> Congressman
Kim Nam-kook's
repeated explanations and pleas raised suspicions, and the MDP leadership finally took action.

[Kwon Chil-seung/MDP Chief Spokesperson: I have decided to recommend the sale of the virtual assets that (Congressman Kim Nam-kook) currently holds. I expect that he will follow the party's policy. I have decided to conduct a transparent and speedy fact-finding investigation.]

We decided to set up our own fact-finding team, with Senior Vice Secretary General Kim Byung-ki as the team leader, and external experts related to virtual assets joined by lawmakers Hong Seong-kook, Lee Yong-woo, and Kim Han-kyu.

With the exception of Congressman Kim Byung-ki, all of them are classified as non-Lee Jae-myeong.

An official of the MDP leadership told SBS on the phone that he would expedite the investigation and clear all the allegations, which he considers absurd, but last FebruaryHe said that the NFT and non-fungible token-based "presidential fund" plan promoted by Rep. Kim are also included in the investigation.

Kim issued an additional statement and said he appreciated the party's decision to accept his fact-finding request and would faithfully implement the recommendation to sell.

However, there was no explanation as to the size of the Wemix coin that was invested in the first place, how it was possible to invest in a coin that was classified as a so-called job coin because it was only 1 won, or whether the legislative action was a conflict of interest.

Therefore, there are many reactions within the party that it will be difficult for suspicion to dissipate for the time being.

Lawmakers from The Good Future, the largest gathering in the MDP, issued a statement today (10th) saying that not only Congressman Kim but also all members of the party should investigate the details of virtual asset investments.

(Video Interview: Cho Chun-dong, Video Editing: Chae Chul-ho)