Ethics panel to determine disciplinary action against Rep. Kim Nam-kuk over cryptocurrency dealings

An advisory panel of the parliamentary ethics committee was to hold a meeting Monday to determine the level of disciplinary measures against independent lawmaker Kim Nam-kuk accused of dubious cryptocurrency dealings.

The Ethics Investigation Advisory Committee had held three rounds of meetings since early this month to see if there were any irregularities surrounding Kim's once massive virtual assets holdings, and its chair has said the panel hopes to make a conclusion at its fourth meeting Monday.

The first-term lawmaker has come under fire following revelations that he had owned around 800,000 Wemix coins in 2021, worth around 6 billion won ($4.5 million), a significant amount inconsistent with his frugal image, spurring suspicions about where the money came from and whether he used insider information.

Further fueling criticism of Kim were revelations that the young lawmaker had traded cryptocurrency coins while attending at least two meetings of the judiciary committee of the National Assembly in May and November of last year.

Since the scandal surfaced, Kim quit the main opposition Democratic Party and became an independent.

The advisory panel, consisting of outside experts, is supposed to deliberate on the level of disciplinary measures against lawmakers referred to the ethics committee, and the panel's decision is usually endorsed by the committee.

Earlier this month, the advisory panel questioned Kim to examine whether he had violated any laws in trading the assets. Kim refused to provide additional transaction data than what had been reported in the media, said Yoo Jae-pung, the advisory group's chair.

Kim, however, admitted to trading coins while he was attending a supreme council meeting, Yoo said. (Yonhap)