Cyrpto Scammer Who Was On The Run for 5 Years, Stole Nearly $13M in Crypto, Was Brought Down by a Cigarette Butt

KJD – What began as a routine stop for tossing away a cigarette butt near a Seoul subway station ended with police arresting a fugitive wanted for a 17.7 billion won ($12.66 million) cryptocurrency scam.  
   
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s mobile patrol unit said Friday it arrested the male suspect in his 60s near Sillim Station in Gwanak District, southern Seoul. He was wanted on 10 charges, including fraud.

According to police, officers on patrol spotted the suspect discarding a cigarette butt and hastily leaving the area at around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday.  
   
When police moved to stop him, the suspect tried to get into a taxi, pleading, “Just let me go this once.” Suspicious, officers demanded identification. The suspect refused to present an ID and instead attempted to flee, repeatedly saying, “Please let me go, I’ll pay you,” while pretending to talk on his phone.

After persistent questioning, police confirmed he was a wanted fugitive with arrest warrants issued on 10 charges, including assault and fraud. The suspect is accused of orchestrating a large-scale cryptocurrency scam between 2018 and 2019, defrauding some 1,300 victims of around 17.7 billion won. He had been on the run for about five years until his arrest this week.

I used to get so mad at my friends for throwing cigarettes out the window whenever we'd have drugs in the car. They'd do it right in the middle of busy road, without even bothering to check if there was a cop around. Not to mention, they're already driving 20 MPH over the speed limit, aggressively passing cars as if they could possibly have something else to do with their lives. It would drive me nuts. We had already defied the odds yet again by completing a successful drug run in inner-city Toledo without getting robbed, or busted in the act of buying by an undercover. Can we please just drive close to the speed limit, and maybe take moment to check our surroundings before launching a cigarette into the car behind us. That's all I ask. It's a 30 minute drive. If we get pulled over, the cops are taking my drugs too.

This South Korean gentleman should have heeded my advice. If you're a positive I.D. away from serious prison time, the last thing you should be doing is littering in a public space. I know most regular people don't even consider throwing their cigarette butts anywhere else but the sidewalk. But you do when you're on the run with ₩17,700,000,000. 

You don't speed, you don't litter, you barely even go outside. If you've got billions of won to spare, what you should really be doing is living under a new identity. I have no idea to go about doing that, but the man had 5 years to figure it out. With enough money to last you lifetime, a new identity should be your top priority. At bare minimum, buy an I.D. off a homeless man. What are the cops going to do, tell you apart?

You could probably even use the homeless man's I.D. to flee the country. Move to a remote area of Thailand and live like the old bald man in White Lotus. Or you could live like Sam Rockwell's character, and get super addicted to Thai hookers. Start hiring multiple of them at a time. Completely lose your mind, forget who you are, and start pretending to be an Asian girl.

I heard Sam Rockwell improvised that scene. He was supposed to answer, "Yeah, I've been enjoying myself", but made an artistic choice to take his character in a more colorful direction. 

Anyways, considering this crypto scammer is already Asian, I guess he would probably want to pretend he was white woman. So maybe Thailand isn't the best choice. My point is, he should have done literally anything other than stay put in the country where he was wanted, and walk around in public throwing his cigarette butts everywhere. If you're going to go down, at least make the cops work for it. I hate to see good honest scam artist go down for being careless.