A private investigation office that had been asked by an illegal private lending company to resolve an intimidation problem instead joined the intimidation and extorted money, and was arrested by police. The operator of the Telegram ‘Bakjebaeng’ channel, which provided the means of intimidation, was also arrested after authorities confirmed allegations of posting fabricated videos involving women.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Metropolitan Investigation Unit announced on the 7th that it had apprehended five people on charges of intimidation and extortion and sent them to the prosecution: three associates of the private investigation office, a former employee A of the illegal lending firm, and B, the Bakjebaeng channel operator. Four of them, except for one associate from the agency, were referred while under arrest.

According to the investigation, in October 2024, A, who had been notified of dismissal from the illegal private lending company, siphoned off a USB flash drive containing customer loan information and blackmailed the company for money. Staff at the private investigation office who had been commissioned by the lender to “retrieve the USB” confirmed that the data on the drive were illegal materials and then conspired with A to threaten the company.

They used the Telegram Bakjebaeng channel as a tool of intimidation. In collusion with B, the channel operator, they posted photos of the company representative, the spouse, and employees on the channel. The group extorted a total of $82,500 (110,000,000 KRW), including $60,000 (80,000,000 KRW) in return for destroying the USB data and $22,500 (30,000,000 KRW) for deleting the posted photos.

During the police investigation, additional criminal allegations related to B’s operation of the channel were also identified. B received fabricated videos involving women and personal information from participants and posted them on the channel. The police stated that “the fake videos were edited and composited in a way targeting a person’s body, etc., so as to arouse sexual desire and shame,” and applied charges under the law on the punishment of sexual violence.

B was also found to have created a separate coin-related Telegram channel and laundered $525,000 (700,000,000 KRW) in criminal proceeds into virtual assets. The police explained that he violated the specific financial information law and the criminal proceeds concealment regulation law by operating a virtual-asset exchange business without reporting and converting criminal proceeds into virtual assets.

The police stated that this was a case of reverse blackmail, in which requesting an illegal act from a private investigation office instead made the requester a target for additional crimes such as intimidation and shakedowns. The police added that “some channels on Telegram are deteriorating into an ecosystem of composite crimes, including intimidation, public shaming, distribution of obscene materials, and laundering of criminal proceeds,” and urged the public to report crime-related channels such as Bakjebaeng to investigative authorities if discovered.