A group that carried out so-called "retaliation for hire," including splashing filth at people's homes for money, has been indicted and detained pending trial.
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office said on the 21st that on the 20th it indicted three people, including Jeong, a man in his 30s who served as the ringleader of the retaliation-for-hire attacks, a bogus employment counselor identified as A, and an accomplice identified as B, all under detention.
They are accused of violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection and the Personal Information Protection Act. In addition, the others in the group, excluding the bogus employment counselor A, were charged with trespassing and property damage.
However, prosecutors are understood to have requested supplementary investigation regarding the charges of organizing a criminal group, intimidation, and some facts of the crimes.
They are accused of splashing excrement in the entrance of an apartment in Siheung, Gyeonggi, in January and of spray-painting lacquer and scrawling abusive graffiti in several areas.
Jeong was referred for indictment on charges of opening a "retaliatory attack" request channel on Telegram on the 3rd, taking money, and in January splashing filth and writing abusive graffiti at apartment entrances in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, and Siheung, Gyeonggi, among other places.
According to police, Jeong had A, a man in his 40s who was a member of the group, get a job under false pretenses as a counselor at a Baemin subcontractor and ordered A to make unauthorized searches for addresses needed for the crimes, resulting in about 1,000 personal information lookups. A was also sent to prosecutors on the 2nd while under detention.
After referring the case, police are continuing the investigation by tracking the higher-ups and clients of the retaliation-for-hire organization and examining links to criminal groups.