Former Rep. Kim Nam-guk cried at the final hearing and pleaded not guilty

Prosecutors demanded a six-month prison term for Kim Nam-guk, a former lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea, who was accused of hiding nearly 10

Former Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Nam-guk, who was indicted for hiding nearly 10 billion won ($7.8 million) in virtual currency (coins) and falsely reporting his assets to the National Assembly, faced prosecutors' demand for a six-month prison term at his final hearing on Friday.

Kim was accused of transferring some of the coin deposits to a bank account to match the total amount of his assets and changing the rest of the deposits into coins to hinder the review of the changes in the assets of the National Assembly's public officials ethics committee.

The committee would have examined the process of property formation if the property of the National Assembly increased rapidly and would have made a written request, the prosecution said during the hearing at the Seoul Southern District Court.

"In the process, the defendant would have known that he had a large amount of coin deposits," a prosecutor said.

The former lawmaker cried at the final hearing and pleaded not guilty.

"I was elected as a member of the National Assembly, and I didn't receive anything that was rice cake, bungeoppang and gave me in good faith," Kim said, crying.

"I knew it was difficult to live pure and clean in politics, but I didn't want to live (illegally) if I didn't do politics."

Kim is accused of hiding the fact that he made huge profits from coin investments during the National Assembly's property declaration twice in 2021 and 2022.

Prosecutors believe that Kim hid his holdings of about 9.9 billion won in coin deposits during the 2021 property reporting process, reported his total assets to about 1.2 billion won and concealed about 990 million won in the same way in 2022.

Sentencing will be held at 2 p.m. on February 10 next year.