The Presidential Palace of South Korea (Cheong Wa Dae) on January 12 announced that inter-sectoral special forces on transnational crime had coordinated with Cambodian police to arrest 26 members of a criminal organization specializing in carrying out fraud and sexual coercion cases targeting South Korean citizens.
Speaking at a press conference on the same day, spokesman Cheong Wa Dae Kang Yu-jung said that special forces had arrested 26 suspects belonging to a fraud ring operating in Cambodia.
This group is accused of impersonating South Korean state agencies to commit acts of fraud and sexual exploitation against women in Phnom Penh since February last year.
According to Ms. Kang, the suspects are based in Phnom Penh, using many sophisticated tricks such as impersonating prosecutors and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of South Korea, in order to make victims believe that they are involved in criminal cases.
After that, this group forced the victims to "self-detain" by locking them in accommodation facilities, completely isolated from the outside, on the grounds of serving the investigation.
Under the guise of verifying and investigating assets, the subjects appropriated a total of more than 26.7 billion won (nearly 19 million USD) from 165 Korean citizens. In addition to serious financial losses, many victims also suffered sexual abuse and coercion during detention.
Spokeswoman Cheong Wa Dae emphasized that the incident shows that fraudsters have far exceeded their goals of appropriating property. "These lines cruelly exploit the psychological weaknesses of victims, leading to sexual exploitation and completely destroying their lives," Ms. Kang said.
The announcement was made in the context that South Korean public opinion is still outraged by a series of violence against its citizens in Cambodia.
In particular, in July last year, a Korean university student - identified as Park - died after being detained and tortured by local criminal elements at the Bokor crime complex. The incident shocked domestic public opinion and raised concerns about the safety of Korean citizens abroad.
Faced with a strong public reaction, the South Korean government sent an inter-sectoral working group to Cambodia in October last year. The delegation, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Jin-a, was tasked with coordinating with Cambodia to handle the situation of violent crime and fraud targeting South Korean citizens.
Cheong Wa Dae said that the arrest of 26 suspects this time is the direct result of bilateral cooperation efforts and prolonged investigation activities of the inter-sectoral special forces, in the context of South Korea strengthening its response to transnational crime rings operating in Southeast Asia.
