Members of the 'Runger Company', a criminal organization based in Pattaya, Thailand, that stole approximately 15.1 billion won from about 700 people through voice phishing, including romance scams, were additionally handed over to trial.
The Seoul Southern District Public Prosecution Office's Criminal Division 3 (Chief Prosecutor Kim Chang-hee) announced on the 10th that it had recently arrested and indicted six members of the Lunger Company, who were arrested in Thailand and repatriated to Korea, on charges of membership and activities in a criminal group and violation of the Communications Fraud Damage Refund Act.
In addition to the 21 people indicted in September and October of last year, a total of 27 gang members, including 6 people indicted from October of this year to the 6th of this month, have been arrested by domestic investigative authorities and have been punished or are currently on trial.
According to the Public Prosecution Office, they are suspected of joining the 'Longer Company' criminal group organized by Chinese leader 'Zi Long' from January to July 2025 and participating in crimes such as romance scams, impersonating investigative agencies, lotto reward coin fraud, and no-show fraud.
'Runge' is a name that combines the Chinese pronunciation 'Rong' (龍) of the commander-in-chief's pseudonym 'Zilong' and the Chinese pronunciation 'Geo' (哥) of 'big brother'.
They impersonated women who did not actually exist and lured them by saying, 'I will give you coins, so watch the live broadcast they are hosting,' and extorted money in the name of recharging coins and exchanging commissions.
They also impersonated an investigative agency and tricked people into transferring money by claiming that the account was involved in a crime, or by selling coins at a low price as compensation for failing to predict lottery numbers.
They also stole money by impersonating soldiers and asking people to purchase goods on their behalf.
It was found that the gang swindled a total of 15.093 billion won from 705 domestic victims through this method.
All four executives of the Runger Company, including the general manager and head of the division, were Chinese nationals. They brought Korean gang members to Thailand through a recruitment scheme and made them participate in the crime.
They recruited members by deceiving them by saying, 'If you work at a voice phishing call center in Thailand, you can live in a luxury villa and make a lot of money.'
Thai police raided a pool villa office in Pattaya on June 21 last year and initially arrested 21 gang members, including 20 Koreans.
However, after the Chinese executives fled, they recruited new Korean members and re-established an office disguised as a rental car company in just 10 days.
On August 6 of the same year, Thai police identified a new crime base and arrested nine gang members, including eight Koreans, and sequentially captured four gang members who had run away.
A total of 32 Korean gang members were arrested, of which 27 were repatriated to Korea and detained twice in September-October last year and October-November this year.
Of the remaining gang members, four were transferred to the competent authority, and one has not yet been repatriated.
The court sentenced 21 gang members indicted last year to severe sentences of 5 years and 6 months to 13 years in prison, and the sentences for 15 of them were confirmed.
The first trial of the six defendants indicted this year is in progress.
One Chinese head and one head of the headquarters are currently serving sentences in Thailand, and the Public Prosecution Office plans to request extradition for them, considering the large number of victims in Korea.
The two other Chinese headquarters directors have not yet been arrested.
The Public Prosecutor's Office said, "Korean members who joined overseas criminal organizations in the hope of making large sums of money were eventually punished for serious crimes after being used as expendable goods to be exploited by foreign executives. This clearly showed that the dream of making a fortune through crime was nothing more than an illusion."
The Public Prosecution Office plans to continue tracking down the remaining members of the organization, including the leader who is staying overseas, in cooperation with the Thai investigative authorities and the Korean police.
