On November 11, the Seoul Southern District Court sentenced Jo A-mu-gae, a 30-year-old leader of the organized crime group 'Lungger Company', to 12 years in prison for his role in voice phishing activities. The court also imposed a fine of 6.6 million won. Four other associates received sentences ranging from 6 to 9 years and fines totaling between 9 million and 12 million won. The court noted that voice phishing is a highly organized crime targeting unspecified victims and poses significant social harm, mostly affecting the underprivileged, who have little hope of recovering their losses.

The 'Lungger Company', active between April and June last year, originated from a Cambodian crime syndicate that relocated to Thailand. The group was involved in various scams, including impersonating lottery compensation schemes and military personnel, defrauding at least 65 South Korean victims of over 1.5 billion won and increasing to as many as 691 victims swindled out of 15 billion won. Jo was known to use physical violence and threats against members attempting to leave the organization, reinforcing the group’s control.

The court emphasized the severity of the organized crime's harmful impact on society, particularly due to the victims being usually from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, which makes recovery almost impossible. The panel of judges acknowledged that while Jo and his associates were not the top leaders of the organization, their essential roles in facilitating the voice phishing operations warranted significant penalties in alignment with societal demands to combat such crimes more robustly.