BUSAN — Brokers who bought foreign luxury cars to smuggle abroad as a way of laundering money taken from victims of a stock investment scam have been caught by police, who also seized four vehicles awaiting export.
The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency's anti-corruption and economic crime investigation unit said on the 22nd that it had apprehended six foreign nationals, including a Kazakh man in his 20s identified as A, on charges including violating the law on refunds for telecommunications fraud losses. Five of them were placed under arrest.
According to police, A and the others took an order in June from a fraud ring to launder 360 million won ($250,000) in stolen funds, then bought six used foreign cars and attempted to smuggle them to Kazakhstan. The money was traced to a scheme in which the fraud ring set up a fake securities firm website and deceived seven victims by promising profits from stock recommendations, police said.
Police opened the investigation after detecting signs that the money had flowed into an export business run by foreign nationals. After asking the Incheon Main Customs office to halt export clearance for the six vehicles and confirm their whereabouts, officers seized four cars worth about 300 million won — a Cadillac, two BMWs and a Toyota — that were awaiting shipment.
Police are questioning the detained suspects about additional offenses. "We are providing related information to Kazakh investigative authorities and conducting a joint international investigation," a police official said. "The seized vehicles will be handed over to the prosecution service and returned to the victims through a public auction process."