"Nine More Booked and Under Investigation"
The Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency (Commissioner Lee Seunghyeop) Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit announced on the 15th that it had apprehended five people, including Onnuri gift certificate affiliate owner A, for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (fraud) and the Subsidy Management Act. These individuals are accused of illicitly distributing a large quantity of Onnuri gift certificates, which are issued to support small business owners such as traditional markets, and then fraudulently obtaining government subsidies. Among them, A was arrested, and criminal proceeds amounting to 2.3 billion KRW were preserved before indictment.
The police stated that all of the suspects are Onnuri gift certificate affiliate owners or vendors. From January to November last year, they purchased Onnuri gift certificates worth approximately 130 billion KRW in bulk without providing services or selling goods, deceived financial institutions into believing the certificates were being circulated normally, and exchanged them to receive government subsidies equivalent to about 5% of the face value, fraudulently obtaining around 6.2 billion KRW.
In particular, A, who was arrested, created two additional fake affiliate stores under other people's names to increase profits, issued false invoices, and raised the monthly exchange limit for the three affiliate stores to 9.9 billion KRW, thereby increasing the scale of illegal exchanges and fraudulently obtaining approximately 5.7 billion KRW.
Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency has additionally booked a total of nine more individuals in connection with the case and is continuing the investigation. The agency plans to expand its investigation to uncover similar cases and strictly crack down on the illicit distribution of Onnuri gift certificates.
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