Given South Korea's fairly lenient prison sentences [0] (or maybe I'm just biased up by the very long US sentences) and that South Korea has a history of not extraditing to the US [1], I don't understand why he would risk worse leaving the country and trying to evade South Korean authorities.
There is zero chance they’re falling for crypto. This is a problem for the gambling masses. To the degree it harms any elite, it’s by introducing political instability in Korea and reducing Singapore’s standing as a stable financial centre.
a) Screwing over a large amount of the Korean population is screwing over the korean elite(because it creates a populist outcry) (I lived in Korea for years. And I can tell you that a way higher percentage of the population is betting on crypto than in western countries
b) This appears to be across the socio economic spectrum. If you think there aren't a ton of rich people throwing money into crypto I guess I'll just say I think you are wrong.
[0] https://msccsp.org/nasc/downloads/HyungkwanPark_supplemental...
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/world/asia/south-korea-ch...