Overview
- Busan police referred six suspects to prosecutors for fraud and illegal lending, detaining three and booking three without detention.
- The ring lent about 16.2 billion won to roughly 9,120 foreign workers at annual rates as high as 154 percent, far above Korea’s legal ceiling.
- Victims were largely Southeast Asian factory workers who typically borrowed 1 million to 5 million won.
- Collecting repayments involved fabricated installment-purchase contracts and over 1,500 court applications to secure payment orders, along with threats involving wage seizure and immigration reports.
- Authorities froze about 2.1 billion won in suspected proceeds, alerted tax officials and support centers, and continue to pursue the father-son operation’s alleged mastermind overseas.