SEOUL: Ten South Koreans have been arrested in Cambodia for alleged involvement in cyber scams and two more rescued, Seoul&#39;s top diplomat said on Monday, days after dozens accused of working in the vast fraud operation were repatriated. A multibillion-dollar scam industry has ballooned in Cambodia in recent years, with thousands involved, some willingly and others forced by the organized criminal groups, experts say. Over the weekend, Cambodia sent home 64 South Korean nationals who had been held for their alleged links to &quot;pig butchering&quot; scams -- so-called for the method of building trust with victims over time before stealing funds. On Monday, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said that 10 more people were arrested and two individuals rescued. They were detained on Thursday and will be repatriated this week, he said. Seoul is also working to locate 80 South Korean nationals still unaccounted for in Cambodia, Cho said. About 550 South Koreans had been reported missing or held against their will after entering Cambodia since last year, the foreign ministry said last week. Seoul has estimated around 1,000 South Koreans are among the 200,000 people working in scam operations in Cambodia. Some have been forced under threat of violence to execute &quot;pig butchering&quot; or romance scams. Those deported over the weekend were detained as soon as they boarded a chartered flight home and were escorted off the plane in handcuffs. Seoul&#39;s National Police Agency said Monday it was seeking arrest warrants for 59 of them. The repatriated individuals have been implicated in crimes like voice phishing, romance scams and so-called &quot;no-show&quot; fraud schemes, Park Sung-joo, head of the National Office of Investigation, told reporters last week. The group included both &quot;voluntary and involuntary participants&quot;, National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac has said. The high-profile repatriations follow public outcry over the torture and killing of a South Korean college student in Cambodia this year, reportedly by a crime ring. Last week, South Korean foreign ministry officials met with Cambodia&#39;s prime minister and local police to discuss fake jobs and scam centres.

Asia

Cambodia has cracked down on a major scam ring, arresting 10 South Koreans and rescuing two. Dozens were recently repatriated amid growing concerns over forced involvement and missing nationals linked to fraud operations.

10 South Koreans arrested, two rescued in Cambodia scam crackdown

LONDON: Denmark lost a fraud case in London&#39;s High Court on Thursday, in a blow to the country&#39;s efforts to recover 12.1 billion kroner ($1.9 billion) from a massive tax fraud scandal. The Danish tax authority, known as Skat, brought the case to recover funds from defendants it said fraudulently claimed tax rebates using so-called &quot;cum-ex&quot; scams. The schemes involve buying and selling shares around the time of dividend payments so quickly that the tax authorities are unable to identify the true owner, making it possible to illegally claim tax credits. London&#39;s High Court ruled Thursday that the Danish tax authority had failed to prove it was &quot;misled&quot; by these tax rebate claims. &quot;Its controls for assessing and paying dividend tax refund claims were so flimsy as to be almost non-existent,&quot; the judge Andrew Baker said in his decision. The main defendant was Solo Capital Partners, a London-based hedge fund founded by British trader Sanjay Shah, who was sentenced to 12 years in jail in Denmark last year. Shah was convicted of running a nine-billion-krone &quot;cum-ex&quot; scam between 2012 and 2015, and the Danish court ordered that assets worth 7.2 billion kroner be confiscated from him. In that case, the prosecution showed that dummy companies controlled by Shah pretended to own shares in Danish companies and received tax rebates for which they were not eligible. The ruling in Britain has dealt a blow to Denmark&#39;s attempts to recoup funds. The Danish tax authority said Thursday&#39;s ruling was a &quot;source of surprise.&quot; In May 2023, a Dubai court ordered Shah to pay&nbsp;Denmark&#39;s tax authority more than $1.2 billion. &quot;Cum-ex&quot; scams, which take advantage of a loophole in European tax laws, have been uncovered in several EU countries. According to Bloomberg estimates, the scams have cost European taxpayers up to 150 billion euros ($176 billion).&nbsp;

Europe

Denmark lost a fraud case in London's High Court, in a blow to the country's efforts to recover 12.1 billion kroner ($1.9 billion) from a massive tax fraud scandal

Articles tagged with "Fraud"

10 South Koreans arrested, two rescued in Cambodia scam crackdown

Denmark loses $1.9 billion London tax fraud case