13 Arrested! Investment Scam Funds Laundered Through Gift Certificate Transactions Before Giving to Fraudsters

Recently, South Korean police arrested suspects involved in laundering money from investment scams and romance scams. These individuals allegedly assisted fraudsters in laundering 10 billion won under the guise of a "gift certificate business."

On November 4, the cyber investigation department of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency announced the arrest of 13 suspects, including mastermind A in her 30s and mid-level manager B in her 20s.

Previously, Korean police were investigating an online trading scam involving 600 million won. While tracing the lost funds, they discovered some had flowed into "gift certificate business accounts" under the suspects' name, leading to the arrest operation.

Police disclosed that between August 2024 and February 2025, 10 billion won in illicit proceeds from investment scams and romance scams were funneled through this gang into 10 private business accounts, disguised as legitimate gift certificate business transactions.

The group's leader, A, recruited B as a manager specifically in charge of withdrawing funds. B established four hideouts in Seoul and formulated detailed "code of conduct" to systematically direct the entire criminal operation. To counter police investigations, she specifically instructed members on how to make statements and ordered the destruction of related evidence.

Police investigations revealed that these members created multiple private business accounts to receive funds, falsely presenting themselves to banks as gift certificate business operators. Business accounts for gift certificate business share a characteristic: frequent large deposits and withdrawals are less likely to raise suspicion.

After receiving funds through their accounts, members transferred the money through over 40 local banks to convert it into cash or checks, which they then handed over to A and B. A paid members 0.8% to 1% of the total funds as commissions and delivered the rest to investment scam syndicates requiring money laundering.

BrokersView reminds you

Victims of investment scams or "pig butchering" romance scams often struggle to recover lost funds, as fraudsters construct complex systems to obscure fund flows, sometimes even converting illicit proceeds into cryptocurrencies.

To avoid such scams, investors should verify a trading platform's financial regulatory status before conducting transactions and never deal with unregulated brokers.