A chief operator involved in a voice phishing crime that swindled over $3.86 million and had been living in hiding abroad was caught after nine years. On June 21, the police reported that the Seoul Jungnang Police Station sent a 50-year-old male who is accused of fraud and violating the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, to the prosecution on June 20.
From November 2014 to March the following year, the suspect was active as a chief operator connected to a telephone financial fraud organization, which used pretexts such as scrap metal sales and loans in Angeles, Philippines among other places. He is under suspicion of embezzling $396,200 from 42 victims.
As a result, he was internationally red-flagged for the international cooperative in investigating fugitives abroad on May 6, 2015. Despite losing the validity of his passport, the suspect continued to live as a fugitive in the Philippines and illegally entered Malaysia around 2017.
However, at the earnest request of his mother, he turned himself in at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Malaysia on May 28 and was arrested at the airport upon entering South Korea on June 14. Two days later, on June 16, the court issued a warrant for his arrest.
The suspect’s wife was also arrested in the Philippines on October 23, 2015, on the same charges, and was extradited to South Korea where she was subsequently jailed.
The Jungnang Police Station has apprehended 45 lower-level operatives in the organization, with 10 of them being detained and 35 released without detention.
