Seoul: South Korea's customs authorities announced on Monday the discovery of an international crime ring implicated in laundering approximately 150 billion won (US$101.7 million) through an unauthorized foreign exchange operation.

According to Yonhap News Agency, three Chinese nationals have been referred to the prosecution for allegedly breaching the foreign exchange transactions act, as reported by the Korea Customs Service (KCS). The suspects reportedly laundered 148.9 billion won between September 2021 and June of the previous year. They accomplished this by exploiting domestic and overseas cryptocurrency accounts along with South Korean bank accounts.

Authorities revealed that the funds were disguised as legitimate expenses such as cosmetic surgery fees for foreign nationals or overseas study costs for students. To circumvent detection by financial authorities, the suspects allegedly bought cryptocurrency in multiple countries, transferred it to digital wallets in South Korea, converted it into Korean won, and subsequently funneled the money through several domestic bank accounts.