Korean blockchain project BOScoin and its affiliated communities and entities have been engaged in a heated dispute for nearly a year over alleged misconduct on behalf of the director of BPF Korea.
The trouble began on June 8th, 2018 with the founding of Gold Link Service. The Japan-based company, run in some part by BPF Korea director InHwan Kim’s daughter, Kim Hae Rin as an executive, was ostensibly established to operate in tandem with BOS Platform to co-develop and eventually launch on the BOS Platform main net at the end of 2018. This came with a good-faith blessing from BOS Platform CEO, Yezune Choi. The agreement between Gold Link Service and BOS Platform stated that InHwan Kim would be in charge of coordinating business cooperation between BOS Platform and Gold Link Service.
Not long after setting up Gold Link, however, the intended business cooperation was all but terminated as the communication between the two companies was nonexistent for over 6 months. As it turns out, Gold Link Service had engaged in a partnership with Xtremer to develop the Deca service, while at the same time Xtremer was supposed to have been developing Stardaq for the BOS ecosystem. Furthermore, Xtremer is said to have been founded with funds largely derived from InHwam Kim’s wife and agreed to receive 30% of the DECAcoin supply rather than traditional fiat payments.
InHwan Kim denies that Gold Link Service had any such agreement with BPF Korea.
Even late last year, the corruption abound at the top levels of BPF Korea was a poorly kept secret. Strife within the ranks threatened the singular direction of the project. In February of this year, the Preparatory Committee filed complaints with the South Korean Prosecutor’s Office against two directors from the Foundation and other suspects on charges of embezzlement and conspiracy. Those complaints may become a full prosecution as soon as this month.
The price of BOScoin dropped relatively steadily through the second half of 2018, when Gold Link Service was established. Now the value of the coin is a very small fraction of what it was even this time last year and investors are furious.
Evidence of the alleged corruption on behalf of InHwan Kim are in large supply from members of the BOS Operating Committee. The first example is the fact that his daughter is an executive of Gold Link Service. Mr. InHwan Kim could not found the company himself as that would be a clear conflict with his duties in the BOS Foundation.
A suggestion to open BOS Foundation and Blockchain OS to independent third-party audits of accounts, minutes, and business contracts was declined by InHwan Kim. Apparently Mr. Kim reasoned that it was unnecessary to conduct further audits since the Swiss government was already conducting yearly audits. He failed to acknowledge that the Swiss government audits did not include investigations into the Foundation’s secretary’s office, which would uncover any ongoing business contracts.
InHwan Kim also accepted shares of Gold Link valued at $3000. In his own words via Telegram, Mr. Kim attempted to excuse his position. “I felt that I was needed in the decision-making governance in order for this service to successfully launch…”
On February 22nd of this year, it appears that InHwan Kim quietly ordered the shutdown of the Gold Link server. SungHun Kim, the CEO of Gold Link, contacted Mr. InHwan Kim and Mr. Moonsoo Lee (CEO of Xtremer) to recover the Gold Link server immediately as it negatively affected the functionality of all the associated servers and services for clients and developers. This also raised the suspicions that Mr. Kim had directorial authority at Xtremer.
Regarding the server shutdowns, SungHun (Star) Kim laid out his frustrations and understanding of the situation in no unclear terms via Telegram message :
I would like to inform MoonSoo Lee and InHwan Kim.
I want you to immediately stop damaging Goldlink and BOScoin.
If this action continues, we will inform you that strong action will follow in the future.
You may have done this criminal act (blocking the Gold Link Server) without notice to me so quickly because of the fear of being known, but recover it quickly.
Shortly thereafter, the server was recovered with the assistance of MoonSoo Lee, but without any apparent help from InHwan Kim. JungHan Kim, the same chairman who would rally in Gangnam the next month about the problems facing the BOS project, revealed on February 23rd that the server shutdown must have been orchestrated entirely by InHwan Kim.
As soon as the committee’s announcement was released yesterday, President InHwan Kim was embarrassed and blocked the normal operation of the Gold Link server. As soon as Gold Link complained, the server was quickly restored. The server shutdown was carried out by President InHwan Kim by ordering the person in charge of the server operating in Xtremer, and Moon-Soo Lee, who claimed that he was away for a while, recovered the server.
The BOS Preparatory Committee was founded on December 29th, 2018 to prepare for litigation against InHwan Kim and all parties involved in the potential case, but has since become the BOS Operating Committee.
The committee has already taken many steps to right their ship this year. They conducted a vote of confidence for the three directors of the BOS Foundation (Yezune Choi, InHwan Kim, and Komaromi Serge) wherein Choi gained 75% confidence, and the two other individuals received 94% no-confidence.
Further implications from Jung Han Kim, the chairperson for the BOS Preparatory Committee, which recently became the BOS Operating Committee since preparations for litigation were completed, detail how the funds may have been allocated to Gold Link Service from the BOS Foundation and misused by Gold Link Service for InHwan Kim’s own private ends rather than for those of the BOS Foundation and BOS Platform development.
It is suspected by some investors and a Foundation member that funds in excess of $1mil were transferred from the Foundation’s account to Xtremer and BPF Korea as late as April 13th of this year.
He called for the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to begin investigation in the $6mil intended for the development of Gold Link for BOS Platform. Up to now the Swiss law firm handling the Foundation’s accounts has not cooperated with the Committee due to the internal governance structure of the BOS Foundation which allows the firm to transfer funds anywhere with the approval of just a two-thirds majority from Foundation leadership.
The BOS Operating Committee also suspects that InHwan Kim is a UBO of Xtremer due to the fact that he was able to give a direct order (which was carried out) to Xtremer, that he was able to share 30% of Gold Link shares with Xtremer, and that Mr.Kim once served as an auditor for Xtremer.
The implications do not end here, however. There are numerous examples of unusual or inappropriate behavior from Xtremer and Gold Link that may weaken their defense in a court battle. The BOS Operating Committee reports that it is ready to file a formal complaint with the Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office in hopes that the prosecutor will hand out charges of embezzlement in the coming weeks.
As of yet, there is no known counter-argument from Mr. InHwan Kim or other implicated associates aside from plain denials of the allegations outlined in the complaints filed against them.
At the risk of undue editorial input, it can be said that this is an unfortunate situation in the sense that if these allegations are true, the level of corruption was brazen and blatant. In the context of what this news site commonly reports about the blockchain industry, it was done seemingly just for effect in a space which condones far worse from far more people.
