'Welcome to Video' Son Jung-woo, First Trial Today on 400 Million Won Bitcoin Concealment Charges

Son Jung-woo, operator of the world's largest child sexual exploitation material site 'Welcome to Video' [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Son Jeong-woo (26, male), who operated the world's largest dark web site for child sexual exploitation materials, "Welcome to Video (W2V)," and completed his prison sentence, is being prosecuted again on charges of concealing criminal proceeds, with the first trial scheduled for the 12th.

At 4 p.m. that day, Judge Jo Su-yeon of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 5 will preside over Son Jeong-woo's first trial on charges of violating the Act on the Regulation of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds and gambling.

Son Jeong-woo is accused of laundering approximately 400 million won worth of Bitcoin, received as payment for selling child sexual exploitation materials, through multiple cryptocurrency exchange accounts and bank accounts under his own or his father's name, then converting it into cash to conceal criminal proceeds. He is also charged with online gambling worth about 5.6 million won on several occasions.

The police applied for an arrest warrant on these charges, but the court rejected it, stating, "(Son Jeong-woo's side) generally acknowledges the main allegations, and basic evidence has been collected, so there is little concern about evidence destruction." Subsequently, the prosecution indicted Son Jeong-woo in February without detention.

This case stems from Son Jeong-woo's father directly reporting to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in May 2020, claiming that his son opened cryptocurrency accounts without his consent. Regarding this, there were criticisms that the father’s actions might have been intended to prevent his son's extradition to the United States during the criminal extradition review process.

Previously, Son Jeong-woo was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison for creating the "Welcome to Video" site on the dark web, accessible only through a special browser, and trading child sexual exploitation materials from 2015 to 2018. At the time of his initial arrest, 20,000 videos totaling 8 terabytes (TB) were stored on the server, including videos of sexual exploitation of infants as young as six months old.

He was also indicted by a U.S. court, and the U.S. requested his extradition under the criminal extradition treaty after he was released in April 2020. However, the Seoul High Court, after his father’s report on charges of concealing criminal proceeds, denied the extradition in July of the same year, stating that "it is preferable for our country to secure custody and exercise criminal jurisdiction."

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