CHANGWON — Police have arrested 21 people, including members of a money-laundering ring that washed about 430 million won ($310,000) in proceeds from cyber fraud for a fee, people who supplied bank accounts, and a suspect who helped the ring's leader flee.
The cyber investigation division of the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency said on the 1st that it had referred eight members of the laundering ring, including a person in his or her 20s identified only by the surname A, to prosecutors in custody on charges of aiding fraud and violating the Act on Regulation of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds.
The group is accused of setting up the laundering operation between December last year and April this year, washing about 430 million won in criminal proceeds for cyber fraud groups and collecting roughly 170 million won in commissions in return.
The members, who knew one another, divided roles among a leader, a recruiter, laundering operatives and a sales manager, and then advertised to other fraud groups through social media that they would launder funds, according to the investigation.
Police found that the suspects did not take part in the fraud itself. Instead, they took over criminal proceeds earned by other cyber fraud groups and laundered the money in exchange for commissions.
The case came to light during an investigation into online scams in which sellers on secondhand trading platforms falsely offered rice and fruit for sale.
After being designated as the lead investigative agency for such cases, police consolidated related cyber fraud cases reported across the country into a single investigation.
Starting with the arrest of a laundering operative in April, police widened the probe and by early September had arrested all eight members of the ring, including its leader. Police also arrested 12 others, including a person in his or her 30s identified only by the surname B, on charges of aiding fraud and violating the Electronic Financial Transactions Act for providing bank accounts and access devices in exchange for payment.
Those suspects handed over accounts knowing they would be used for crime and received anywhere from about 100,000 won to 8 million won, the investigation found. Police placed two of them in custody after determining they had supplied accounts and access devices knowing the crimes they would enable and had taken payment for doing so.
Police also referred a person in his or her 20s identified only by the surname C to prosecutors without detention on charges of harboring a criminal, for helping the ring's leader try to escape during the arrest operation.
The cyber fraud cases consolidated in the investigation totaled 1,161. Most were small-scale scams in which individual losses amounted to several hundred thousand won.
Police treated the case as organized fraud targeting ordinary people's livelihoods, noting that more than 1,000 victims were created in a short period.
"We have generally investigated account providers without detention, but in this case we responded firmly, placing two suspects in custody who provided accounts and access devices knowing they would be used for crime and took payment for it," a police official said. "We will thoroughly investigate the act of handing over bank accounts that makes organized fraud possible."
The official added: "Cyber fraud is continuing to increase with the spread of secure messengers and anonymous social media. We will respond strongly to cyber fraud that harms people's livelihoods."
