A group that laundered 238.8 billion won in criminal proceeds by disguising them as gift certificate transactions has been apprehended by the police.
On June 13, the Guro Police Station in Seoul announced that it had referred 21 individuals?including Mr. A, the head of a major gift certificate company, as well as the heads and employees of fake gift certificate companies and leaders of a money laundering organization?to the prosecution on charges of violating the Act on Regulation and Punishment of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds, among other offenses. Eleven people, including Mr. A and eight heads of gift certificate companies, have been referred while in detention.
Mr. A is accused of receiving 238.8 billion won in criminal proceeds from fake gift certificate operators and laundering the funds into cash. The fake gift certificate operators who transacted with Mr. A had been commissioned by members of criminal organizations involved in investment fraud and online gambling to launder their criminal proceeds. They transferred the criminal proceeds to Mr. A as if they were paying for gift certificates. Mr. A then returned the cash, deducting his commission of about 0.1 to 0.3 percent, to the fake gift certificate operators. It was revealed that no actual gift certificate transactions took place during this process.
From January 2023 to March of last year, Mr. A laundered up to 300 million won in cash per transaction and cashed out between 10 billion and 40 billion won per company. The funds transferred to Mr. A were confirmed to be from investment fraud victims and online gambling operations. The police have seized 620 million won obtained by Mr. A and the fake gift certificate company heads prior to prosecution in order to recover the criminal proceeds.
A police official stated, "We will continue to track down members of criminal organizations involved in investment fraud and other crimes who commissioned the laundering of criminal proceeds," and added, "We plan to urge tax authorities to strengthen regulations, such as requiring thorough documentation of transactions, to prevent gift certificate companies from using cash for money laundering."
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