SEOUL, Nov. 27 (EFI).- The South Korean government on Thursday announced sanctions on 15 individuals and 132 entities involved in online fraud networks in Southeast Asia, the country’s first sanctions at the transnational level in the region, for crimes committed against South Korean citizens.
The measure follows the uproar caused by the death of a South Korean student in Cambodia last August, whose autopsy revealed signs of torture, and the return in October of 64 South Koreans detained for their alleged participation in crimes such as “phishing” or “romance” scams in Cambodia.
The sanctions target people and organizations linked to fraud and money laundering networks, and highlight the inclusion of the Prince Group, headed by Chen Chee, who is accused of running compounds in Cambodia where many South Koreans are lured with promises of good salaries and sometimes forcibly detained.
The group was designated as a target of sanctions imposed by the United States and the United Kingdom last month, according to a South Korean Foreign Ministry statement.
Also included is Huione Group, a payments platform accused of facilitating illicit financial operations, which the US Treasury Department was already concerned about last month due to its use for money laundering.
The ministry said that designated individuals and organizations will be subject to measures such as “freezing domestic assets, including virtual assets, restrictions on domestic financial transactions, and, in the case of individuals, entry bans, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.”
The South Korean government has also strengthened international cooperation.
During their summit earlier this month in South Korea, the country’s President Lee Jae-myung and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping signed a memorandum of understanding to combat online fraud, amid suspicions that networks in Southeast Asia are often operated by Chinese citizens or organizations.
This month, South Korea also concluded another agreement with Cambodia to prosecute crimes targeting its citizens.
As an example of such cooperation, Seoul on Thursday announced the arrest of 17 South Koreans linked to a fraud ring in the Cambodian city of Sihanoukville, in the first operation of the new Seoul-Phnom Penh joint task force in the Southeast Asian country, which was created to combat crimes against South Korean citizens, according to a report by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). Evie