Police Raid Massive Gambling and Pornography Ring Operated by Computer Science Ph.D.

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Police have arrested a group that operated South Korea's largest illegal pornography website. The pornography was used merely as bait to recruit members for an illegal gambling site. Investigations revealed that even a computer science Ph.D. participated in creating and managing the site.

Reporter Bae Seong-jae has the details.

[Reporter]

Police handcuff a man's wrists.

[As of this moment, you are being arrested on charges of distributing sexually exploitative material, illegally filmed content, and pornography, as well as establishing a gambling space.]

This footage captures the moment when a computer science Ph.D. identified as A, who created and managed illegal gambling and pornography distribution sites, was arrested.

Since 2019, A and accomplices are suspected of operating out of the Philippines to build and run two of South Korea's largest illegal pornography distribution sites, which included child sexual exploitation material.

The sites contained approximately 116,000 illegal videos, 2.85 million registered accounts, and a cumulative view count reaching 5.3 billion.

They lured members drawn in by the pornography to an illegal online casino they operated.

[Lee Sook-young, Head of Cyber Crime Investigation Unit 3 at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency: We became convinced that this was not simply a pornography site, but rather something akin to a comprehensive solution provider linked to a gambling site....]

Investigations showed that 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 470 billion won.

Police initiated an investigation last November after a women's organization filed a complaint regarding the pornography sites. They reportedly uncovered detailed crime-related data by apprehending A, a computer science Ph.D. who played a pivotal role in the simultaneous operation of the pornography distribution and gambling sites.

Police have sent B, a man in his 40s and a site operator who briefly entered South Korea from Korea 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 currently proceeding with procedures to confiscate and recover approximately 470 billion won in criminal proceeds.

(Video by: Kim Heung-ki | Video Editing by: Kim Ho-jin | Footage source: Women's News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.