South Korean ‘money mule’ recruiters nabbed for luring student to Cambodia, who was later found dead
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SEOUL – The South Korean police have taken into custody “money mule” recruiters suspected to have been involved in a university student’s departure to Cambodia in 2025 before his death in the country, officials said Oct 11.
The student was found dead in Cambodia on Aug 8 after leaving for the South-east Asian country in July.
The Cambodian police listed cardiac arrest resulting from torture and extreme pain as the cause of death on his death certificate.
The Gyeongbuk Provincial Police said it apprehended some members of a recruiting ring operating a mule account in September for allegedly scamming the student, who was in his 20s, into leaving the country for Cambodia.
It did not specify the number of people taken into custody, but they are all reportedly South Korean.
Mule accounts are bank accounts used to transfer money for criminal purposes, and those who provide them are referred to as money mules.
The police said the student appeared to have become involved with money mule recruiters, and they are tracking down individuals involved in job scams and kidnappings in Cambodia.
A week after the student’s departure to Cambodia, a blackmailer speaking Korean with a Korean Chinese accent had called the student’s family and demanded 50 million won (S$45,400), saying the student had caused trouble.
The student’s body was later found near Cambodia’s Bokor Mountain, where employment scams and detentions targeting South Koreans have happened.
His body has yet to be repatriated to South Korea due to issues with cooperation from the Cambodian government. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
