A group that laundered approximately 240 billion won in criminal revenue obtained through investment leading room fraud and other activities, disguised as a transaction of gift certificates, has been caught by the police.
The Seoul Guro Police Station stated on the 13th that they have sent a total of 21 people, including the representative of a gift certificate company surnamed A, false gift certificate traders, and leaders of a money laundering organization, to the prosecution on charges of violating the Act on the Regulation of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds. Among them, 11, including A, were sent while in custody.
Mr. A is accused of receiving deposits of 238.8 billion won in criminal revenue disguised as transactions of gift certificates from January 2023 to March 2024 and laundering this money into cash.
They went through three stages to launder the criminal revenue. First, the criminal organization handed over the criminal proceeds acquired through investment leading room fraud and cyber gambling to the money laundering organization. The money laundering organization then transferred this money to the false gift certificate company. The company then sent this money to the gift certificate company operated by A under the pretext of purchasing gift certificates.
In this process, the false gift certificate companies took a 1% commission, while A took a commission of 0.1% to 0.3%. A laundered the criminal revenue by delivering cash to the false companies after deducting the commission. Each company turned at least 10 billion won into cash, with some converting as much as 40 billion won. A packaged and delivered a maximum of 300 million won in cash per transaction. It was confirmed that there was no actual transaction of gift certificates.
The police commenced an investigation after receiving a report on investment leading fraud in June 2023. They later apprehended two false gift certificate traders in March of last year through account tracking. The police confirmed that A's company had received criminal revenue from them and conducted a search and seizure of A's company.
The police preemptively seized 620 million won accumulated by A and key gift certificate companies before indictment to recover the criminal revenue. Those accused, including A, are reported to deny the allegations.