KORPolice have arrested a group that operated South Korea's largest illegal pornography website. The pornography was used merely as bait to recruit members for illegal gambling sites. Investigations revealed that even a computer science PhD took part in creating and managing the platform.
Reporting by Bae Seong-jae.
Police place handcuffs on a man's wrists.
[Effective as of this moment, you are being arrested on charges of distributing sexual exploitation materials, illegally filmed content, and pornography, as well as opening a gambling space.]
This is the moment when a computer science PhD, identified as A, who created and managed illegal gambling and pornography distribution sites, was arrested.
Group A has been accused of operating two of South Korea's largest illegal pornography distribution sites, featuring child sexual exploitation materials, operating out of the Philippines since 2019.
The sites contained about 116,000 illegal videos, 2.85 million registered accounts, and reached a cumulative 5.3 billion views.
They lured members gathered through the pornography sites into their own online gambling operations.
[Lee Sook-young, Head of Cyber Crime Investigation Division 3, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency: We became convinced that this wasn't simply a pornography site, but rather something resembling a comprehensive solutions company linked to gambling sites....]
Over the past five years, the total betting amount on gambling sites associated with them reached approximately 4.7 trillion won, with criminal proceeds exceeding 47 billion won.
Police launched an investigation after a women's rights group filed a complaint against the pornography sites in November of last year. They were able to verify specific crime-related data after arresting A, the computer science PhD who played a pivotal role in the simultaneous operation of the pornography distribution and gambling sites.
Police sent B, a man in his 40s and site operator who briefly entered South Korea from the Philippines along with A, to prosecutors under detention, and plan to request Interpol Red Notices for the masterminds remaining overseas.
Having shut down all 10 illegal sites operated by the group, police are also proceeding with procedures to confiscate and recover approximately 47 billion won in criminal proceeds.
(Photo: Yonhap News) (Video by: Kim Heung-ki | Video Editing by: Kim Ho-jin | Footage courtesy of: Women's News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.
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