Our son was arrested in Korea as a voice-phishing "cash courier" — we're in the US, how do we help him?

You can appoint a lawyer for your son directly, today, from the US. Korean law allows a parent to engage defense counsel independently of the suspect, and in the first 48 hours that is the most useful thing you can do — more useful, right now, than a flight. The "warrant hearing" is real and it is the pivotal moment: it decides whether he is detained for the investigation or released to fight the case from outside.

What this is under Korean law

Collecting cash from victims for a voice-phishing organization (현금수거책, hyeongeum sugeochaek — "cash collector") is prosecuted as fraud (사기, sagi) under Article 347 of the Criminal Act, and typically under the Act on Prevention of Telecommunications-based Financial Fraud (통신사기피해환급법), which carries up to ten years' imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 100 million for telecommunications financial fraud. Where the courier is treated as a participant in the organization's scheme rather than a knowing principal, the charge is often framed as aiding fraud (사기방조, sagi bangjo). The difference between those framings is the whole case, and it turns on what he knew or should have known.

How the process works in Korea

After arrest, police have 48 hours to release him or apply for a detention warrant (구속영장, gusok yeongjang). The court then holds a warrant hearing (영장실질심사, yeongjang siljil simsa), usually the next day, at which a judge examines him in person and hears defense counsel before deciding. If the warrant is denied, he goes home and the investigation continues with him at liberty. If granted, police can hold him up to ten days, and the prosecutor up to a further ten, extendable once, before indictment.

That hearing is where a lawyer changes outcomes. Courts weigh flight risk and risk of evidence destruction. For a foreign student, "flight risk" is the argument the prosecution will make, and it is answered with concrete facts: enrolment, a fixed address, a passport that can be surrendered, family ready to guarantee his attendance, and — critically — a defense that shows he did not understand the nature of the work.

His situation as a foreign national

He is entitled to an interpreter at every stage, and to have the US consulate notified under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations; the consulate can visit, but does not provide legal representation. His public defender is a real lawyer, but a court-assigned one appointed for the warrant stage, typically without English and without time.

Under Article 30 of the Criminal Procedure Act (형사소송법), a suspect's spouse, lineal relatives and siblings may appoint defense counsel on their own. You do not need his signature. A retained lawyer can visit him (접견, jeopgyeon) before the hearing, prepare him, and appear.

On his studies and status: an arrest does not end a D-2 visa. A conviction is a fact the Immigration Office may weigh, and drug and fraud convictions appear in the grounds for deportation review; universities may also learn of a case and apply their own disciplinary rules. Those outcomes are decided by the Immigration Office and the university, not the criminal court, and no one can promise them. MEGA X handles the criminal case; where it affects his status, we coordinate with an immigration specialist as part of the defense.

What to do now, and what not to do

Appoint counsel before the hearing. Send whatever he has: the job ad, the chat with the "employer," payment records, how much he was paid per pickup. Do not contact the "employer" account. Do not have your son give further statements without his lawyer present; his first police statement already exists, and consistency matters. Do not wire money to anyone claiming to be able to "fix" the case. Flying out is reasonable after the hearing, when visits and support matter; before it, your time is better spent getting a lawyer into the station.

From a former police investigator's perspective

Cash courier cases are built by the time the arrest happens — the police were at the pickup because they were tracking the victim's report. What the investigator is deciding afterwards is where your son sits in the organization: how the recruitment message was worded, whether he was told to use a fake name or company ID, how much he was paid relative to the amounts collected, how many collections, and whether anything in the chats shows he suspected. A student who did it three times for a small fee and stopped asking questions is a very different file from someone who negotiated his cut. The chat history decides this, and it should be in his lawyer's hands before it is in the prosecutor's summary.

We take instructions from families abroad regularly and can reach a detained client in Seoul quickly. Call +82-2-522-3959 or use the text consultation form; the warrant hearing will not wait.

— Hyeonghwan Chon, Managing Partner, MEGA X Law Firm Korea