Arrested After 7 Years Over Staggering 650 Billion Won Fine

[Anchor]

A man in his 50s who went into hiding for seven years without paying a fine of 650 billion won has been captured by prosecutors. The man was the mastermind behind a gold bullion smuggling ring, and he was caught while casually hanging out at a cafe in the Jongno jewelry district in Seoul.

Reporter Kim Gyu-ri has the details.

[Reporter]

A residential area in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on August 21.

Prosecution investigators monitor the situation, and shortly after, a man stares intently at the spot where the investigators just passed.

As the man disappears back into the alley, the investigators rush toward him.

This is the moment when a man in his 50s, identified as Mr. A, was captured after going into hiding in July 2019 without paying 653.7 billion won, the largest fine in history.

[(You know. The fine is quite substantial, and there is also the matter regarding the gold bullion.) Yes.]

Mr. A was the mastermind of an international smuggling ring that smuggled gold bullion between South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong starting in 2015. In 2019, a court sentenced him in the first trial to two and a half years in prison and a fine of around 1.3 trillion won on charges of smuggling approximately 40,000 one-kilogram gold bars out of the country.

While the market profit margin was about 40 billion won, the fine was calculated based on the original cost of the gold bullion, resulting in an astronomical amount.

It became a hot topic at the time as it was the largest fine ever imposed in a single case.

[Cho Jang-hyun / Public Information Judge at the Busan District Court at the time (January 15, 2019, "8 News") : The nature of the crime is grave because he actively and for a long time utilized ordinary citizens by luring them with offers such as free trips to Japan.]

Six months later, his sentence was significantly reduced in the appellate trial, and Mr. A was released the day after the ruling. Although his fine was cut in half, it still remained the highest on record.

Mr. A spent the next seven years evading the investigative net. In recent CCTV footage secured by SBS, he could be seen casually chatting with acquaintances at a cafe.

Prosecutors spotted Mr. A in person after seven years at a cafe in the Jongno jewelry district of Seoul.

[Kim Hak-rok / Execution Division, Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office : What was really unexpected was that he was not wearing a mask at all and looked completely unconcerned and relaxed like an ordinary citizen.]

Prosecutors tracked CCTV footage backwards to locate his hideout somewhere in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul, leading to his arrest and subsequent reimprisonment.

(Video by: Lee Chan-soo | Video editing by: Park Ji-in | Design by: Bang Min-ju)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.