The digital gold rush has turned into a prison sentence for the masterminds behind Popcornsoft. In a final ruling on January 2, 2026, the South Korean Supreme Court solidified 12-year prison terms for the company’s Chairman Lee, CEO Ahn, and Chairman Oh. The trio was found guilty of orchestrating a massive “AI-powered” Ponzi scheme that swindled over 30,000 victims out of a staggering 120.3 billion Korean won (approx. $92 million). While the executives are heading to the shadows, the court’s decision to cancel a state confiscation order has left victims with a daunting task: fighting for their life savings through the civil court system.
From early 2022 to mid-2023, Popcornsoft lured investors with nationwide seminars promising a “guaranteed” 15% return on futures trading, allegedly powered by a proprietary AI algorithm. In reality, the “AI” was nothing more than a basic automated trading script, and the profits were a classic fiction—new investor money was simply shuffled to pay off old ones. The fallout was catastrophic; the court noted that some victims, having lost everything, were driven to “extreme measures.”
While the first trial court initially ordered the state to seize 11.7 billion won in criminal proceeds, the appellate court—and now the Supreme Court—overturned that seizure. The justices ruled that because victims can technically identify their losses through transaction records and file civil lawsuits, the state is not required to step in. For the thousands who were promised the future of finance, the reality is now a 12-year wait behind bars for their predators and a grueling legal marathon to recover what’s left.
