A Bath Basket Filled with 50,000 Won Bills... Money Laundering Gang's Office-Tel Revealed

420 Billion KRW Worth of Criminal Proceeds Laundered
Fake Gift Certificate Company Created for Cash Conversion
Luxurious Life with Imported Cars... 6 Arrested

Eight members of a gang who laundered money stolen through investment leading rooms, romance scams, and other fraudulent activities while living a luxurious lifestyle have been arrested. On the 18th, JTBC reported, "A gang that extorted 9 billion KRW from over 80 victims and laundered the funds through gift certificates has been handed over to the prosecution." At the time of the police raid, a cash counting machine was found on the kitchen shelf, and approximately 2.2 billion KRW in 50,000 KRW bills were stacked throughout the house in bath baskets, plastic bags, and desk drawers. In addition, a total of 2.83968 billion KRW in criminal proceeds was recovered, including four vehicles, among them luxury imported cars, and luxury watches.

[Image provided by Seongdong Police Station]

The gang, including a man in his 20s identified as Mr. A, is suspected of laundering criminal proceeds of the fraud organization through a fake gift certificate trading corporation at officetels and apartments in the Gangnam-gu area of Seoul from October last year to February this year. They created a fake gift certificate trading corporation to launder money stolen through various scams and involved two actual gift certificate trading companies. They purchased gift certificates from one gift certificate company using the criminal proceeds and then transferred them to another gift certificate company to receive cash, thereby laundering the funds. This process involved multiple complex steps to evade the investigation.

The total amount of laundered criminal proceeds is estimated to be 42 billion KRW. Notably, 9 billion KRW of this amount was stolen from 86 investors by an overseas-based fraud organization impersonating a famous investment expert, using methods such as "fake app and website investment scams baiting with high returns," "gold and oil investment scams through AI analysis," and "romance-type scams through social networking service (SNS) conversations." Mr. A and his gang enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle by using four vehicles, including luxury imported cars, and purchasing luxury watches as compensation for laundering the organization's funds.

[Image provided by Seongdong Police Station]

The police announced that on this day, six people including Mr. A were arrested and sent to prosecution on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (fraud under the Specific Economic Crimes Act) and the Act on the Regulation and Punishment of Criminal Proceeds Concealment (concealment and disguise of criminal proceeds). Additionally, two representatives of gift certificate trading companies who participated in money laundering for a commission were handed over to the prosecution without detention. Investigations are also ongoing into the fraud organization that requested the money laundering.