[Herald DB]
[Herald DB]

Police have arrested two people who uploaded millions of illegal pornographic files online and made tens of millions of won in illicit profits.

South Chungcheong Province Police said Tuesday they had detained a man in his 40s, identified only as A, on charges of violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection by distributing obscene material, and referred a man in his 30s, identified as B, to prosecutors without detention.

The two are accused of creating more than 600 accounts under other people's names on domestic web-hard storage sites from 2024 until recently, and uploading about 8.4 million illegal pornographic files through those accounts.

Investigators found that the pair downloaded existing pornographic content, used a specific program to rename the same videos, and then distributed them in bulk across multiple web-hard platforms. Each time a user downloaded a file, the pair accumulated points, converted them into gift vouchers and cashed out, netting about 90 million won ($67,400) in illicit gains.

Police applied for and received pre-indictment seizure orders covering about 72 million won of the criminal proceeds. An Interpol red notice has been issued for an accomplice believed to be staying abroad, and the investigation is ongoing.

All posts uploaded through the accounts the suspects created have been deleted.


choigo@heraldcorp.com