Man in his 40s sentenced to 1 year and 8 months in prison for his role in soliciting withdrawals and transporting vehicles in stock investment fraud

A man in his 40s was sentenced to prison for participating in money laundering using casinos by soliciting withdrawals for stock investment fraud and transporting gang members' vehicles.

Judge Park Byeong-ju of the Busan District Court's Criminal Division 12 announced on the 3rd that he sentenced Mr. A, a man in his 40s indicted on charges of fraud and violating the Act on Concealment of Criminal Proceeds, to 1 year and 8 months in prison and ordered him to collect 3.8 million won.

Mr. A was put on trial in November last year on charges of being involved in recruiting withdrawal plans for an investment fraud organization, transporting members of the organization in a vehicle, and participating in the laundering of criminal proceeds.

According to the ruling, this organization impersonated a stock investment expert and stole 2.05 billion won from 34 victims between November 25th and 27th of last year after having them access a fake investment site.

The organization used casinos to cash out the damages.

They exploited the fact that casino VIP customers could purchase game chips with checks and exchange the remaining chips for cash if they played games over a certain amount.

The withdrawers retrieved the money in their accounts and delivered it to them by check, and the VIP customer, who served as the currency exchanger, converted it into game chips at Kangwon Land Casino and then cashed it out.

Mr. A participated in the crime by becoming acquainted with the organization's money launderer whom he met as a customer while engaging in illegal paid transportation using private or rented vehicles, also known as 'call ride'.

Mr. A recruited four withdrawal agents through an acquaintance, put the gang members in a car, and drove them to a location where they received or handed over the proceeds of crime.

Judge Park said, “Mr. A was fully aware of the details of the crime and took on the role of soliciting withdrawals, so his degree of participation was not light, the scale of the damage was large, and recovery from the damage was not achieved.”

However, the fact that he admitted to the crime and participated in it for a short period of time, that he did not appear to have led the crime, and that he had no previous criminal record or punishment exceeding a fine was taken into consideration in sentencing.