[News Today] Mule account crime network busted

[LEAD]

Police have arrested a crime ring accused of working with Chinese criminal groups to supply mule accounts. They lured people in urgent need of cash with promises of low-interest loans, then used their information to open fraudulent bank accounts.

More than KRW 100 billion in criminal proceeds was laundered through those accounts.

[REPORT]

Police storm into an apartment.

Arrested are members of a crime ring that distributes fradulent bank accounts.

They approached victims in urgent need of money with the promise of low-interest loans.

Then they received bank verification codes from victims and directly opened accounts using phones operated by the ring members.

All such 80 mule accounts created this way were handed over to Chinese criminal organizations.

These groups carried out scams such as voice phishing and received victims’ money through the fake accounts before laundering funds through virtual assets and gift certificates.

If the accounts got suspended, the Korean leg of the organization that supplied them went on to contact financial institutions to request for the restriction to be lifted.

Ring member - Bank clerk / (VOICE MODIFIED)

I want to use it but the limit has gone down. [Payment suspension request came in from police.]

A total of KRW 117 billion, some USD 78 million, in criminal proceeds, were laundered this way over the course of a year from March 2024.

Police arrested 149 people including the ringleader and Chinese members and handed seven of them to the prosecution in detention.