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A criminal organization that operated an overseas illegal gambling site involving over 2 trillion won in stakes over a decade has been busted by the police. Investigators found that they accumulated more than 160 billion won in criminal proceeds, which they used to travel by private jet.
Reporter Park Eon from CJB.
[Reporter]
Men repatriated from overseas walk out of the airport under police custody.
They are the domestic mastermind and members of a criminal organization that operated a large-scale illegal gambling site for 10 years.
Since late 2016, they established offices in Malaysia and operated illegal gambling sites offering sports betting, baccarat, and slot machines.
The organization had two overseas masterminds based in the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, respectively, while a domestic mastermind handled money laundering and secured dummy bank accounts.
They maintained a strict division of labor, employing managers, team leaders, and staff to run deposit and withdrawal teams, customer service teams, and a development team.
In particular, they recruited professionals from university professorships, major corporations, and major overseas social media platforms, paying them monthly salaries of 30 million won to run the organization like a corporation.
An analysis of 316 accounts used in the crime by the police revealed that total gambling stakes amounted to 2.668 trillion won, with confirmed criminal proceeds reaching 163.7 billion won.
The proceeds were used to fund a luxurious lifestyle for the overseas members, who took private jets to watch the 2022 FIFA World Cup from VIP seats and exchanged luxury watches.
Launching their investigation in July of last year, the police arrested a total of 87 individuals—including 43 domestic masterminds, organization members, and dummy account distributors, as well as 44 habitual gamblers—and detained 18 of them.
Additionally, the police have applied for preservation of추징보전 (provisional seizure for forfeiture) on 619 billion won of the criminal proceeds.
The police plan to push for the repatriation of the two overseas masterminds in their 40s to South Korea and recover hidden criminal proceeds through ongoing account tracking.
(Video by: Kim Geun-hyuk, CJB)
Park Eon, CJB
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