Wealthy Golfers Targeted in $850K Rigged Casino Scheme

Wealthy Golfers Targeted in $850K Rigged Casino Scheme

Twelve members of a sophisticated criminal organization that used rigged casino games and extortion schemes to entice wealthy people on golf vacations overseas and extort the equivalent of US$850K have been detained by South Korean authorities.

The 60-year-old gang leader, known only as "Mr. A" by the Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency's International Crime Investigation Unit, was one of those taken into custody.

According to investigators, the scam started in November 2022 when Mr. A made friends with a prosperous businessman at a golf networking event.  According to court records, Mr. A. secretly fitted the businessman's vehicle with a GPS tracker.

As part of a "hole-in-one celebration," Mr. A. informed the gullible victim that he had won an all-expenses-paid golfing trip to Thailand.

Plot of Sextortion

After arriving, the group encouraged the victim to have sex with a sex worker while playing golf.  According to authorities, they later claimed that the sex worker was underage and requested ₩240 million (US$172K) to resolve the issue.

At least five additional wealthy victims were allegedly targeted by the organization between the middle of 2023 and the middle of 2024, and they were all met at golf driving ranges.

Once more, the victims were enticed overseas with promises of unique golfing adventures, this time to Cambodia, where they were urged to participate in tournaments that were rigged.  Police claim that unscrupulous casino employees and members of the syndicate made sure they suffered huge losses.

In one instance, the group staged a fictitious kidnapping in order to coerce the victim into paying by stating that his associate was being detained against their will at the casino.  The victim was defrauded of ₩680 million (US$490K) in a single transaction.

The total sum extorted in all cases was close to ₩1.19 billion, or around US$850,000.

"Setup Crimes"

Law enforcement discovered connections to a casino insider who assisted in carrying out the scam and the use of GPS surveillance to control victims during their investigation.

One of the accused, a South Korean national in charge of international coordination, is still at large.  In order to facilitate his extradition to Korea, authorities have revoked his passport and asked for an Interpol Red Notice.

"We consider the crimes by Mr. A’s organization to be the classic form of a ‘setup crime,’ in which innocent people are made to appear as criminals in order to extort money,” Gyeonggi police said in a statement.

They cautioned that these kinds of crimes can be especially successful since victims are deterred from seeking assistance by their fear of prosecution.

“Demanding money by invoking the possibility of criminal prosecution is clearly extortion –do not comply and report it immediately,” they added.