Seoul police smash $9 million fake XRP investment platform, arrest three

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency arrested three suspects on July 30, 2026, accused of running a fraudulent XRP investment platform that collected 12.3 billion won, or about $9 million, from 71 investors.

Wallet analysis has since traced an additional 27.3 billion won, roughly $20 million, in related transfers, raising the possibility that the true scale of the fraud is far larger than the initial complaint.

According to Korean newspaper Chosun, the group operated a site called Fxrpntwork.com and promoted it through blog posts, online articles, and YouTube videos. The platform promised guaranteed principal and monthly returns of between 1.5% and 1.8%, luring investors between October 16 and October 23, 2025, before the operators shut the site down and vanished with an estimated 3.4 million XRP.

Victims were instructed to move XRP off South Korean exchanges and route it through overseas platforms before it landed in wallets controlled by the group, a layering technique investigators say was designed to obscure the money trail.

Police have arrested two 29-year-old suspects and referred a third, a 34-year-old alleged accomplice, to prosecutors. A fourth suspect, also 29, remains at large overseas; Seoul police have obtained an Interpol Red Notice and are continuing to investigate others accused of building and promoting the site. Police have urged prospective investors to verify platforms through official channels rather than relying on unverified promotions circulating on YouTube or elsewhere.

The scheme borrowed credibility from real infrastructure. The suspects reportedly used the names Flare Network and FXRP to imply a connection to Flare’s genuine FAssets system, which uses overcollateralized mechanisms to represent assets like XRP for use in decentralized applications.

Ripple has previously warned that impersonation schemes routinely copy trusted names, logos, executive identities, and marketing material to manufacture false legitimacy, and Interpol has flagged financial fraud as an increasingly organized, cross-border criminal enterprise.

Guaranteed-return promises remain one of the most reliable warning signs of crypto investment fraud. FBI data has shown cryptocurrency scams producing billions of dollars in losses globally, frequently through fabricated dashboards showing fake account balances.

A separate international crackdown resulted in 276 arrests tied to networks that moved victim funds through layered wallets, exchanges, and offshore financial channels.

South Korean authorities froze 17.3 billion won in virtual assets shortly after opening the investigation, though roughly 10 billion won moved before the freeze took effect. The subsequent discovery of 27.3 billion won in additional linked transfers has prompted police to widen the probe, with investigators now examining whether more victims and accomplices have yet to be identified.