International Currency Smuggling Gang Embezzling 17.5 Billion Won Arrested... 7.1 Billion Won Seized

21 Arrested Including Domestic Chief, 2 Detained
Hundreds of Billions in Illicit Crime Proceeds Seized

A Taiwanese mafia and a Chinese voice phishing organization were arrested for smuggling 17.5 billion KRW overseas using virtual assets in a currency exchange scam.

Cash worth approximately 1 billion KRW in seized items and criminal proceeds confiscated by the police. [Image source=Seoul Gangbuk Police Station]

On the 23rd, the Gangbuk Police Station in Seoul announced that they had arrested a total of 21 people, including six members of the Taiwanese mafia organization (three Taiwanese and three Chinese) charged with fraud and violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, and 15 members of the Chinese voice phishing organization (one Chinese and 14 Koreans) charged with fraud. They also seized 7.1 billion KRW in criminal proceeds. Among them, two individuals?the domestic head of the voice phishing organization and the domestic head of the Taiwanese mafia?were detained. The police sequentially transferred these suspects to the prosecution from August 11 to August 16.

They are accused of laundering the proceeds of voice phishing by first purchasing and reselling gift certificates, then buying virtual assets through domestic currency exchange offices used by the Taiwanese currency exchange organization, and finally selling them on overseas virtual asset exchanges to smuggle criminal proceeds abroad. The police estimate that the criminal proceeds smuggled overseas using this method amount to hundreds of billions of KRW. It is known that they secretly continued their crimes through unregistered currency exchange offices disguised as ordinary offices to evade investigation.

Kim Jae-jin, head of the Gangbuk Police Station’s Intelligent Crime Investigation Team, stated, "The Taiwanese head who has not yet been arrested will be tracked through international cooperative investigations. We believe there are more illegal currency exchange offices operated by them domestically, and we plan to expand the investigation."

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