Ticket Scalper Who Made 2.4 Billion Won Caught; Police Award 184 Million Won for 20 Special Achievements

[Financial News] Police will award special achievement bonuses to officers who arrested a professional ticket scalper who resold tickets worth about 2.4 billion won over eight years and pursued the launch of temporary protection centers for people who have attempted suicide and others.
The Korean National Police Agency said on the 14th that it had held the 8th Special Achievement Bonus Review Committee meeting, selected 20 outstanding achievements and decided to award a total of 184 million won. The review gave high marks not only to arrests but also to policy achievements that addressed problems in the field and eased public inconvenience.
A notable award-winning case was a large-scale ticket-scalping operation investigated by three officers, including Constable Kim Chun-jung of the Cyber Investigation Division at the Gyeonggi Northern Police Agency. From September 2018 through last April, they arrested and detained a professional ticket scalper who used automated programs and accounts in other people’s names to obtain 8,967 tickets to performances and sporting events, then resell them for about 2.4 billion won in profits.
The investigation began after data from the Korea Creative Content Agency revealed indications that a particular seller had traded tickets in 69 transactions over three months, worth about 19 million won. Police analyzed online transaction records and communications data to identify the seller and trace earlier transactions.
In the course of the investigation, police also found indications that the suspect had used scalping proceeds to buy one apartment and two commercial properties. They took steps to preserve, before indictment, assets worth about 1.3 billion won, including commercial properties and bank deposit claims. The investigative team was allocated a 15 million won bonus.
Police Lieutenant Kim Yang-hyo and Senior Inspector Jo Tae-hyeon of the Korean National Police Agency’s Crime Prevention Policy Division will also receive 15 million won for pursuing the launch of temporary protection centers for people who have attempted suicide and those experiencing mental health emergencies.
A temporary protection center is a facility where people who have attempted suicide and others are kept safe in a secure place for a set period while professionals assess their risk and connect them with medical institutions or Mental Health Welfare Centers.
Under the current system, people who have attempted suicide or have mental illnesses but do not need immediate hospitalization have been kept at police stations and then handed over to their guardians. This has raised concerns that, because they do not go on to receive counseling and treatment, calls for assistance are repeated.
The Act on the Performance of Duties by Police Officers allows people in need of protection to be handed over to public relief institutions, but no specialized facility for use in the field had been established.
Since last year, police have consulted with relevant organizations, including the Ministry of Health and Welfare, local governments and fire services, to pursue the launch of temporary protection centers. The initiative has been incorporated into the government-wide suicide prevention policy, and discussions are underway on a plan to run pilot centers at five locations nationwide starting next year.
Other cases selected for awards included the arrest and repatriation of 19 Korean members of a scam organization through cooperation with authorities in Kazakhstan, and the introduction of a system to suspend transactions on accounts used for romance scams and no-show fraud, among others.
The awards also recognized the nationwide rollout of a voluntary reporting system for youth cyber gambling, which received 1,777 reports from May 18 to August 31. Other achievements included recovering 2.96 million data items using decryption technology for ransomware developed in-house, and helping rescue someone by staying on the phone with the person who reported the incident for 22 minutes at a flood scene.
Those selected for awards are expected to receive their final bonuses after their specific contributions are verified over about a week.
A Korean National Police Agency official said, "We will continue to actively identify and reward public officials who achieve special results that the public can feel, thereby firmly establishing a performance-oriented organizational culture."
[email protected] Kim Ye-ji Reporter