Young gangsters busted for laundering illegal gambling money

Prosecutors indicted 34 young people, including Gwangju-based gangsters, for laundering 10 billion won ($7.7 million) gained from illegal online gambling by exploiting bank accounts opened under other people’s names.

Items seized from gangsters who laundered illegal gambling profits, including cash, gold items, designer brand clothes and watches [YONHAP]

Prosecutors indicted 34 young people, including Gwangju-based gangsters, for laundering 10 billion won ($7.7 million) gained from illegal online gambling.

According to the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office on Monday, the accused laundered 10.7 billion won in bank accounts opened under other people’s names.

Five accused were members of the Gwangju-based organized crime syndicate called the “Kukje PJ-pa.”

The rest, including a 23-year-old, were indicted of lending their names to bank accounts used to launder profits from an illegal online gambling website in return for monthly payments between 1 and 1.5 million won.

The gangsters made 700 million won in laundering commissions from the operators of the illegal online gambling website.

However, the gambling website operators are still at large. The authorities plan to place all five on the wanted list.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the five members of the Gwangju-based crime syndicate were asked to launder illegal gambling profits between July and September last year.

Some 86 bogus bank accounts were used to launder the filthy lucre.

The illegal activity came to light as the prosecutor’s office investigated a voice phishing case handed over by the police.

The prosecutors' office found that some of the bank accounts used in the phishing fraud were also used in the laundering scheme connected to organized crime.

The money laundry agents charged between 0.3 percent and 1 percent in commissions for every transaction.

The offenders are primarily “MZ gangsters” — young criminals in their 20s or 30s who are members of the so-called Millennial Generation or Generation Z.

MZ gangsters are involved mainly in illegal online gambling, illegal loan sharking, real estate fraud and voice phishing, unlike their predecessors, who were primarily active in adult entertainment, gambling and finance.

The five gangsters, in this case, used their ill-begotten gains to fund lavish lifestyles.

Law enforcement agents who raided their homes found 345 million won in cash in private vaults. They also found gold items and luxury watches valued at 120 million won.

“The prosecution will strongly respond to organized crime such as money laundering and operating illegal gambling websites by putting suspects into detention while we investigate them as a general rule,” an official from the prosecution said.

“The authorities will track and seize criminal proceeds and file complaints to the National Tax Service.”

The prosecution also indicted a 46-year-old doctor who used three illegitimate bank accounts to evade taxes.

BY IM SOUNG-BIN [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]