INTERPOL has announced that it has conducted a coordinated operation across some 40 countries in territories which, in part, targeted money laundering associated with illegal online gambling.
According to a Wednesday announcement, the global enforcement agency saw the recovery of some $342 million in fiat as well as about $97 million in physical and virtual assets.
Operation ‘Haechi VI’, conducted between April and August of this year, focused on seven types of cyber-enabled financial crimes: ‘voice phishing, romance scams, online sextortion, investment fraud, money laundering associated with illegal online gambling, business email compromise and e-commerce fraud’, according to the INTERPOL release.
The detected and disrupted online fraud and money laundering activities, ‘blocking over 68,000 associated bank accounts and freezing close to 400 cryptocurrency wallets’.
The oversight body indicates it recovered some $16 million in ‘suspected illicit profits’ from crypto wallets.
The Haechi operations were financially supported by South Korea, but (within Asia) involved China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.
Looking at specific cases, INTERPOL highlighted that the Royal Thai Police marked its largest single-case recovery in the country to date, involving some $6.6 million in stolen assets. The operation involved a ‘sophisticated business email compromise scam perpetrated by a transational group comprised of Thai and West African nationals’ which targeted a ‘major Japanese corporation into transferring funds to a fictitious business partner based in Bangkok’.
Looking to South Korea, a combination effort between the Korean National Policy Agency and Emirati authorities recovered some KRW6.6 billion ($3.91 million) ‘sent to an illegitimate bank account in Dubai after a Korean steel company noticed that shipping documents had been forged’.
Speaking of the efforts, the Head of South Korea’s INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Seoul, Lee Jun Hyeong, noted that “Operation HAECHI has time and again demonstrated the power of unified global action in eradicating cyber-enabled financial crime. The Republic of Korea has been at the forefront of international cooperation by disrupting illicit financial flows and apprehending key offenders. We will continue to strengthen partnerships with INTERPOL and global law enforcement to proactively and sustainably respond to the evolving crime landscape”.
