Police Bust Massive Gambling and Pornography Ring Run by Computer Science PhD

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Police have arrested a group that operated one of the country's largest pornography websites. Pornography was used as bait, with the ultimate goal of recruiting members for illegal gambling sites. Investigations revealed that even a computer science PhD participated in creating and managing the sites.

Reporter Bae Seong-jae has the story.

[Reporter]

Police place handcuffs on a man's wrists.

[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, based in the Philippines since 2019.

The sites hosted approximately 116,000 illegal videos, 2.85 million registered accounts, and reached a cumulative 5.3 billion views.

They lured members gathered through the pornographic content to their own online illegal casinos.

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

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 47 billion won.

Police launched an investigation after a women's organization filed a complaint against the pornography sites in November of last year. They reportedly uncovered detailed criminal data after apprehending A, the computer science PhD 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 who was a site operator and 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, the police are currently proceeding with procedures to confiscate and recover approximately 47 billion won in criminal proceeds.

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