Illegal Remittance Ring Worth 301 Billion Won Using Virtual Assets Uncovered... Vietnamese Organization Busted

Gwangju Main Customs Office, Suspected Violation of Foreign Exchange Transactions Act
Housewives' Accounts Used for Money Laundering via Bitcoin

Incident Overview Diagram. Gwangju Regional Customs Headquarters

The Gwangju Main Customs Office of the Korea Customs Service announced on April 2 that it had uncovered an illegal money remittance ring using virtual assets to transfer a total of 301 billion won between Korea and Vietnam.

The discovered organization consisted of one naturalized Vietnamese national and two Vietnamese nationals, who continued their illegal activities for approximately three years from April 2021 to February 2024. The Korea Customs Service has referred the main suspect, Ms. A (female, in her 30s), without detention on charges of violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act (unregistered foreign exchange business), and has issued wanted notices for Mr. B (male, in his 30s) and Ms. C (female, in her 40s).

They borrowed financial accounts and domestic and overseas virtual asset accounts from Vietnamese housewives who had acquired Korean citizenship, offering a monthly payment of 500,000 won per account. Subsequently, they recruited domestic and overseas clients through social media platforms such as Telegram, managing large-scale funds for illegal money remittance operations.

The group purchased Bitcoin, Ripple, and other cryptocurrencies through overseas exchanges, then transferred and sold them via domestic exchanges. In the process, they not only collected remittance fees but also profited from the so-called "Kimchi Premium"—a price gap between domestic and overseas cryptocurrency markets that reached up to 15%.

During the investigation, customs authorities also identified a number of domestic exporters who received export payments through illegal remittance methods at the request of their Vietnamese counterparts.

The problem is that as these funds became linked to financial crimes such as voice phishing, the affected companies' accounts were frozen for periods ranging from at least 14 days to as long as six months.

An official from the Gwangju Main Customs Office stated, "Recently, with the increase in K-beauty and apparel exports, foreign exchange crimes using virtual assets are spreading. Illegally remitted funds are often associated with major crimes such as voice phishing and illegal drug transactions, and can cause critical damage to business operations. Therefore, such methods must never be used."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.