Man posing as Southeast Asia business fixer arrested in Gangnam after allegedly swindling W200m

A man in his 30s, identified only as A, has been arrested on suspicion of defrauding South Korean business owners out of hundreds of millions of won by falsely claiming he could help them break into Southeast Asian markets.

A allegedly introduced himself as an associate of Prince Group — a conglomerate linked to allegations of involvement in Cambodian crime compounds — and claimed close personal ties to a Southeast Asian member of a top-tier K-pop idol group. He used these claims to project influence across the region and gain his victims' trust.

Gangnam Police Station officers arrested A around 2:30 p.m. Friday at a restaurant in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on fraud charges. Police had already secured an arrest warrant for A and moved in after a tipster reported his whereabouts.

The tipster is the head of a company that A had allegedly defrauded out of hundreds of millions of won. After learning that A was approaching another business using the same method, the tipster alerted police.

A and the victim met in August last year through a mutual acquaintance. Upon learning that the victim's company was preparing to expand into Southeast Asia, A volunteered to help, presenting himself as an associate of Cambodia's Prince Group. He had also been described as a "Thai businessman" in at least one online news article. A further claimed that a Singapore-registered firm called Kingsman Business Solutions was his company.

A repeatedly demanded money from the victim, framing the payments as operating expenses for market-entry activities. The total losses alleged by the complainant amount to 200 million won ($141,000).

A told the victim that groundwork for entering the Malaysian market would be completed within a week, but kept pushing back the deadline, according to the complainant. To make the work appear legitimate, A showed the victim what looked like loan-related documents — all of which the complainant says were fabricated.

Gangnam Police Station, which now has A in custody, plans to conduct a thorough investigation into the full scope of the fraud charges against him.