Prosecutors Indict Group for Creating Modified 'Lineage' Game and Operating Gambling Den

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] A group that created a modified version of the online game 'Lineage' to operate illegal gambling spaces has been brought to trial.

According to the prosecution on the 20th, the Crime Proceeds Recovery Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Yoo Jin-seung) arrested and indicted four people, including exchange manager Mr. A, on charges of operating gambling spaces and copyright law violations, and indicted two others involved in money exchange without detention, bringing a total of six people to trial. The criminal proceeds amounting to 1.025 billion KRW were also frozen.

The six individuals, including Mr. A, are accused of exchanging game money worth approximately 36.5 billion KRW in 149,701 transactions from May 2020 to December last year for users of the Lineage private server, and hiding criminal proceeds by transferring 6.6 billion KRW in cryptocurrency.

The prosecution launched an investigation into the operation of Lineage private servers and gambling spaces in April last year and previously indicted seven people, including exchange manager Mr. B, without detention in June of the same year on similar charges.

In the case of Mr. B and the other seven, it was found that from February 2020 to May 2021, they exchanged game money worth approximately 28.3 billion KRW in 99,741 transactions and transferred 3.1 billion KRW in cryptocurrency.

They established illegal servers unrelated to NCSoft's Lineage game and provided them to users, modifying the program to allow users to gamble through mini-games such as Bugbear Racing using their characters within the game.

The prosecution explained that they exchanged the game money used for gambling into cash and converted the profits into cryptocurrency, which was then sent through overseas exchanges. The exchange operators did not disclose contact information and communicated with users only through social networking services (SNS) accounts registered with burner phones, conducting exchange transactions only when users provided their resident registration numbers, bank account numbers, and contact information.

In May last year, the prosecution took the first seizure and preservation measures on 14 accounts at domestic and international cryptocurrency exchanges and banks, and in November of the same year, took the second seizure and preservation measures on 11 accounts at cryptocurrency exchanges and banks. A prosecution official stated, "For the first time domestically, we preserved cryptocurrency worth approximately 300 million KRW at an overseas exchange located in a tax haven."

This case began investigation as accomplices of suspects transferred from the police were found to continue committing crimes while the main perpetrators had not been caught. However, the prosecution explained that based on the crime names alone, there is no authority to initiate investigations, raising concerns about investigative gaps.

A prosecution official said, "There is a need to improve laws to allow exceptional initiation of investigations even for crimes where the prosecution does not have investigative authority, when the recoverable criminal proceeds are specifically confirmed."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.