TL;DR:Â
- The South Korean police referred 23 suspects involved in money laundering for a Cambodia-based fraud network to the prosecution.Â
- The individuals involved moved $11.1 million (16.8 billion won) in transactions using the USDT stablecoin between February 2024 and April 2025.Â
- The authorities’ investigation identified 11,300 bank accounts linked to 265 independent cases of investment scams and phishing.
The Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency dismantled a complex crypto laundering structure operating for a Cambodia-based phishing organization. The operation concluded with the detention of two main leaders and the prosecution of over twenty collaborators within South Korean territory.
Multi-million dollar operations with the USDT stablecoin
The Seoul police report reveals that the criminal group executed massive transfers worth approximately $11.1 million over a fourteen-month period ending in April 2025. The illicit funds were converted into the USDT stablecoin to be sequentially sent between domestic and international exchanges.
The information indicates that the network leader, identified under the pseudonym “C”, coordinated the movements from abroad and is currently the subject of an Interpol Red Notice. Concurrently, law enforcement arrested 33 other individuals accused of operating clandestine exchange services that processed an additional $4.1 million in digital assets.
Presumably, the network diversified its operations to hinder the tracking of funds by financial regulators. Through this scheme, the criminals withdrew the profits in foreign currencies or South Korean won after charging operational fees. Local authorities managed to secure nearly $431,000 through pre-indictment confiscation warrants before formal charges were issued.
Security challenges in the global crypto ecosystem
According to the analysis by Xue Yin Peh, head of investigative strategy for APAC at Chainalysis, the scam-compound ecosystem in Southeast Asia presents itself as a persistent concern for law enforcement agencies globally. The specialist noted that, despite recurring interventions, transnational criminal networks demonstrate remarkable structural flexibility and constantly relocate their operational bases.
Industry metrics reflect that stablecoins remain the preferred instrument for illicit financial flows. Statements from the firm Chainalysis argue that criminals choose these assets for the same reasons legitimate users do: their high liquidity, cross-border portability, and the relative price stability of their quotation. However, the firm reiterated that blockchain transactions remain transparent, allowing issuers to freeze funds once fraud is verified.
The tightening of institutional controls in the region keeps multiple commercial entities and financial consortiums under scrutiny. Over recent months, multilateral agencies from the United States and Taiwan confiscated more than $580 million in crypto assets linked to cyber-scam mafias located in Burma, Laos, and Cambodia, highlighting the scale of the regulatory challenge.
Given this scenario, the South Korean police issued a public warning reminding that acting as an intermediary or agent in trading someone else’s virtual assets constitutes a punishable offense under the country’s legislation. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency will keep the international cooperation channel with Interpol active, focusing its efforts on the extradition of the fugitive leader before the start of the detainees’ trial hearings.
