A criminal organization that laundered more than 40 billion won in proceeds from fake investment scams, voice phishing, and other telecommunications financial fraud has been caught by police.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Cyber Investigation Division said Tuesday it had arrested 22 people, including ringleader identified as A, on charges of laundering approximately 41.5 billion won in criminal proceeds in collusion with a telecommunications financial fraud organization. Three of them were placed under detention. The suspects face charges including violations of the Act on Refund of Damage Caused by Telecommunications Financial Fraud, the Act on Regulation and Punishment of Criminal Proceeds Concealment, the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, and the Telecommunications Business Act.
According to police, A and his group set up a fake gift certificate company in October 2024, then received criminal proceeds through corporate-name accounts and disguised them as legitimate transaction payments. From February 2025, they recruited additional members to gather numerous "daepo" accounts opened under other people's names and dispersed funds across multiple accounts, the investigation found.
A was identified as a former gang member who had operated out of Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. Most members were unemployed men in their 20s and 30s connected through hometown senior-junior relationships based in the Eumseong and Jincheon areas of North Chungcheong Province. Under the ringleader, they divided their roles into management, laundering, and supplying daepo accounts to carry out the crimes, investigators found.
Police detected the existence of the organization behind the crimes in May 2025, when they arrested a suspect who had handed over a daepo account while investigating a fake investment fraud case. They then identified offices and residences through fund flow tracking, CCTV movement analysis, and stakeouts.
The group communicated only through overseas secure messengers and evaded crackdowns by relocating offices every one to two months. They demonstrated meticulousness by sharing a response manual to ensure arrested members did not implicate other accomplices, and maintained internal rules to pay fines at the organizational level when members were fined.
Police plan to continue tracking investigations into unrecovered criminal proceeds while stepping up crackdowns on laundering organizations linked to telecommunications financial fraud groups.
